Cricket Australia Announces 'Additional Guardrails' to Address Female Teammates Having Affairs With Each Other

Obviously, these are complicated times to be running a women's professional sports league. It wasn't all that long ago when it seemed the biggest problems they had was lack of attendance, TV ratings and revenue. Now, these leagues are holding meetings just to decide the what the "W" in their name stands for, and can't agree on a definition:

That doesn't happen with the men's leagues. 

And to the best of my knowledge, neither does this:

That would be this team captain:

… two-timing this now ex-wife:

… allegedly with this teammate:

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Which is a situation that has finally been addressed by all involved:

Source -  Australian women's cricket vice-captain Ash Gardner has spoken out about swirling rumours of an affair with her younger teammate Georgia Voll following several weeks of silence. 

Her ex-wife Monica Wright, 30, recently called out Cricket Australia's inaction over the potential conflict of interest arising from Gardner's involvement in selection and decision-making for the team.

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg spoke about the situation on SEN radio on Thursday, saying he will bring in 'additional guardrails' for personal relationships among team members and staff.

This was followed by Gardner taking to Instagram to issue a statement on Thursday evening. 

'While my separation from my wife is a personal matter, I understand my current relationship status needed to be addressed by Cricket Australia given my position as vice-captain,' Gardner wrote. …

Greenberg said CA oversees any team decisions and relationships were a personal matter, but that he was aware there could be a 'perception' of a conflict of interest.

'In situations where there are some personal relationships (we will) make sure there are some additional guard rails so the perception of conflict (of interest) and I am talking about things like selection are handled appropriately.' …

Wright questioned why Gardner had been permitted to retain senior leadership positions after Cricket Australia became aware of the situation.

'I think if you're privileged enough to represent your country and be seen as a role model, there's a responsibility to hold yourself to a high moral standard,' Wright told The Daily Telegraph.

'What I can't understand is why Cricket Australia hasn't said anything publicly.

'Does their silence mean they support the actions of Ashleigh and Georgia?'

Talk about a sticky wicket.

Giphy Images.

Look, it's not for us to judge how Ash Gardner did Monica Wright dirty, or whether Monica might be better off is she just sort of let it go and didn't spend her time lobbying Cricket Australia to end her ex-wife's career or whatever. My original point remains. This is the difficulty facing any sports organization whose athletes are going to be getting romantically involved with one another. There's a Butterfly Effect to these sexual relations that has a widespread ripple effect on the games. 

And by comparison, the people running men's leagues have it easy. For all the issues facing the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, the Pro Bowlers Tour … you name it … as far as anyone knows, they get to just take it for granted that none of their athletes are cheating on their wives with one another. With Tinder dates, groupies, women in the hotel bar, Road Beef, maybe even each other's wives, sure. But it's hard to imagine any MLB team having to worry about the clubhouse being torn apart by a middle reliever boning the shortstop. 

Hetero men are pretty basic that way. As the great Reg Dunlop put it when Suzanne Hanrahan told him she's also into women:

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… and asked if he'd ever considered men, "I don't blame you though Suzanne, I mean, well see, women's bodies are beautiful. But men's bodies, see I see 'em everywhere you know, in the locker rooms, their cocks all over the place and everything. … At the end of the day I think about women. You know, I think about women's bodies. Now maybe all that'll change, maybe I'll end up sleeping with old goalies. I mean, things bein' what they are, who knows?"

Well that was 1977. And here, almost 50 years later, men's team sports are pretty much the same. 

Relative to what Cricket Australia is dealing with here, problems like PEDs, cheating, concussions, arrests and so on, are child's play. If women's sports really want pay equity, they ought to start by asking to split revenue with the commissioners running the men's leagues. Because relatively speaking, those guys have it made compared to Todd Greenberg. And for that matter, Cathy Englebert: