Christina Matthews, CEO Western Australian Cricket Association

Alex Mednis & Cass Simonetti, Australian Sports Professional Association
Christina Matthews, Western Australian Cricket Association
 

Bonus content

Each CEO has bonus content available to ASPA members that is not found in the book. The philosophies below are sourced directly from the interview, however each interview contained so much great content we had to put together an excerpt. Note that the content of the interview differs than the philosophies.

Interview

An elite cricketer, representing Australia in 20 Test matches and 47 One Day Internationals and holding the record for the most dismissals by an Australian wicket-keeper In Test Cricket, Christina has had a working life spanning Football and Cricket across 3 states of Australia. 
 

Did you know growing up that you would work in sport?

As it turns out, it's been a lifetime involvement. As a kid, I was always involved in playing sport. Whether that was informal in the street with other kids or in a club environment. You know, I'm so old that the only choices were football and cricket when I was growing up!

When I was 12, I joined a cricket club. A women's cricket club too, which was rare in those days to have a cricket club that was in my local area, so I was very fortunate.
 

What attracted you to join the club?

The fact that there was a local club was a big attraction and once I joined I was amazed how comfortable and right it felt to be in a community of like minded people and being part of something bigger than yourself.

I remember my first committee involvement when I was 14, and in hindsight, I've always done volunteer work in sport. Whether that has been cricket, hockey or football - it has always been full of volunteer roles. When I entered professional life, it was initially as a secretary, so that helped with the skills I needed for sport volunteering as well. 
 

A great learning cycle - the sport helps the professional life, which in turn helps the sport?

That's right - it struck me that if I was going to work every day, and that was going to go on for at least 40 or more years, I should look for a job in something that I enjoyed - which was a mix of administration and sport. That's really how my career evolved - I looked for a job in sport to be around people that I knew were my kind of people. 
 

Fantastic. Did you ever aspire to be in a leadership role as a kid?

It really came as a natural progression. Once I realised that I was a very driven person, and was someone that looks for excellence - it really opened my eyes to being a leader in sport. Though it wasn't administration initially. One of the dreams I had was a real ambition to play cricket for Australia. I figured if I worked in sport, they would understand that kind of ambition. 

And it involved naturally through the cricket world?

Actually, my first job was with the Victorian Football Association which is now called the VFL. Football and cricket were my two sporting passions. Here I was during the day working in football, and then out of work I was training and playing cricket. For a young person it was the ideal life.

And as somebody who was a participant in the sport, did you find your expectations are met when you actually started working in a sport? Or did the passion obscure the reality of what in reality, is working in a corporate business?

Yeah, well, (laughs) it wasn't quite that corporate when I was starting out!
 

(laughs) That's very fair.

People have natural leanings towards things. My natural leaning is to be organising, formulating, planning, and so forth. So, you know, I was probably lucky. My first role was as a secretary so I didn't have any delusions of grandeur. I just wanted to be around sport and to learn how things worked.
 

And maybe a bit before sport was so political in administration!

I was always fascinated by how footy clubs run and things like that - so I was quite blind to the politics of things at the time because I was young, working, and just loving being in that environment. When you get a nominated title in a leadership position, the business of sports at that stage starts to dominate your passion for the raw game.
 

Sport is, and can be, an ‘old boys’ club. That must've been particularly difficult over the years. I think there are only 5 or 6 female CEOs of state sports associations in Western Australia. Out of almost 80 or so sports!

Yes, that still exists. Believe me it still exists! I've been lucky in my life and just gone and thought, "What do I need to do? I'll just go and do it". In my early career, I was aware as a younger person that certain things weren't permitted in some areas that boys of my age or young men of my age were allowed to do - but I was more focused on what I was trying to do.

Every now and again I'd challenge something and create a bit of a stir. And here I am!

I grew up with an ambition to be the best I could be in whatever job I held, and making sure it was better when I left than when I started. 
 

How has your perception changed around the challenges for women in sport?

Looking back the clarity of the ‘old boys’ club has been much more focused since I became a CEO, rather than when I was growing up through it. As a CEO you understand how powerful that club can be. As a CEO, there is no reason for me to be excluded from things and yet there are still things that I get left out of.

When you're coming through a system, you actually find reasons for why you're excluded rather than it being about a ‘boys club’ or gender or anything like that. You don't want to fall back on that as a reason for why you are not successful. And sport has not traditionally been set up for women to thrive. 

It's a lot of out of hours, dealing with a lot of volunteers, and women have traditionally been placed by society as being responsible for family and children - so there is an inherent exclusion in when we can, and cannot work. 
 

Thinking around your team, how do you promote diversity to bring about that generational change?

Whatever your gender, you have to accept that if you don't keep pushing for equality, it is not going to happen. Every person in the workplace is responsible for understanding what the challenges are for achieving greater diversity. 
 

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

Absolutely. And sometimes you have to explain the standard so they know what they are walking past. It's about bringing those issues out all the time. 

But it is changing, albeit slowly. The last four or five years have been unbelievable in sport, and people sense that. You'll hear things explained as if is a revelation, "But the girls don't have any change rooms! How will they play?" No. And they haven't had any for 100 years. This is what we need to bring into light. 

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