James Allsopp has been appointed to fill the newly created role, which covers community cricket and talent pathways through to the national teams

The increasing complexity of global planning has led Cricket Australia to revamp its operations, with the appointment of the organisation’s first Chief Cricket Officer.

James Allsop will take on the newly created role after previously overseeing the community cricket portfolio, with his new remit also covering CA’s talent pathway programmes, high performance and national teams.

Current National Teams General Manager Ben Oliver will continue in his role with a structural change that will allow him to focus more on the preparation and performance of Australia’s world champion men’s and women’s national teams.

Both Allsopp and Oliver will join the CA executive team, with former Australian rower and investment banker Sarah Pragnell also appointed as Chief Financial Officer.

During his time as a wicketkeeper-batsman, Allsopp was part of the New South Wales under-19 national champions team in the 2001–02 season, alongside future national representative Dan Christian, and also played against England academy teams that included current ECB director of cricket Rob Key.

“I am delighted to have James Allsopp as our first Chief Cricket Officer, a role that will help ensure connectivity and alignment across community cricket, talent pathways programs, high performance systems and national teams,” CA Chief Executive Nick Hockley said in announcing the new appointments today.

“James brings a wealth of experience and success as a player, coach and manager. His expertise and leadership will enable us to build on the success we have achieved across all areas of the game.”

Oliver, who previously served as the Victorian and Tasmanian representative and later chaired the highly successful Western Australian Cricket Association program, was appointed CA’s High Performance and National Teams boss in 2019.

In the last five years, they have won the World Test Championship final, ODI and T20 World Cups (men), won the ICC global ODI and T20 trophies and also won a Commonwealth Games gold medal (women).

Australia also retains the men’s and women’s Ashes trophies. The women’s Ashes will be contested in a multi-format series starting on January 12 next year and ending with a historic day-night Test Tournament (January 30-February 2) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“The incredible global growth of cricket creates an additional level of complexity as well as many opportunities and this change ensures Ben Oliver can focus on the sustained success of our national teams, building on the fantastic results of recent years,” Hockley said.

“I am confident these appointments will deliver strong benefits at all levels of cricket as we prepare for an exciting and challenging season including the NRMA Border-Gavaskar Trophy and CommBank Women’s Ashes series.

“These blockbuster series, combined with the excitement of the Big Bash Leagues, will help grow youth participation programs and competitions across the country.”

Pragnell, who previously served as regional finance director and group corporate finance director at global health and nutrition company H&H Group and holds a master’s degree in finance from the European Business Institute, will take over as CFO, replacing Samantha Douglas, who left CA earlier this year.

“Sarah Pragnell brings a wealth of experience to the CFO role from her time as senior finance executive at H&H Group (Swisse Wellness) and previous experience at Macquarie Capital, Lion Capital Advisory and Medibank Private,” Hockley said.

“Sarah was the standout candidate in a highly competitive process and brings valuable commercial finance skills to cricket.”