Publisher's Synopsis
From his position as the CEO of the Australian Cricket Board between 1997 and 2001, and then cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2001 to 2008, Malcolm Speed has been involved first-hand with some of the most tumultuous events to occur in the history of cricket. Initially viewed as an outsider in a cricket environment customarily administered by past top-level players, Speed's appointment led to an uneasy relationship and extremely delicate negotiations with the Australian Players' Association in 1997, which took the game to the brink of a player strike. From corruption to bad language to sex to pay disputes to alcohol to media controversy to behaviour problems, Speed had plenty to occupy his four-year tenure as chief executive of the ACB. As CEO of the ICC, Speed oversaw the banning of the cricketing pariah nation Zimbabwe, the disastrous 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, the murder investigation of Bob Woolmer and the Andrew Symonds 'Monkeygate' scandal.Speed pulls no punches as he speaks candidly about cricket's perennial corruption problem, the 2010 Pakistani betting scandals and John Howard's nomination to the ICC Presidency in what will be known as the sport's most revealing bio of the 21st century.
