Image courtesy of: perthnow.com.au
Arthur is seeking to gain a huge settlement
Former Australia coach Mickey Arthur has hired a law firm to gain compensation after being terminated by Cricket Australia last month.
Arthur, who had signed a contract till the 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, was sacked in June and replaced by Darren Lehmann, who previously held the esteemed title of Queensland’s head coach.
Arthur has now returned to Australia and has asked his legal team to search for any breaches in the way he was terminated.
According to an article published in the Australian, Arthur was given no prior notice that he was breaching the conditions of his contract.
Arthur was sacked on June 24 for, what Cricket Australia called, failures of discipline, consistency of behaviour and accountability.
It was also revealed that after his termination, Arthur was given three months’ pay as a severance agreement, but he is now seeking to gain a much larger amount.
During his tenure as head coach, Arthur accepted all the responsibility for the numerous controversies the Australian team were involved in and never once pointed the finger at Cricket Australia or the players.
“The reality is when you take a job on as head coach you are totally responsible for the outcomes,” Arthur had said. “The players are a young group learning the way. I’m very structured in the way I go about things. I’m a man of principle, I try and get the team going in one direction because I firmly believe a team with culture is a successful team.
“I don’t feel let down by the players at all. At the end of the day you live and die by the sword and I gave this job 100% of my time over the last couple of years. The disappointing thing is I thought we were nearly there to cracking it, I really do. I take responsibility for it.”
Australia won 10 out of 19 Tests under Arthur’s regime, but the ‘homework-gate’ and David Warner scandals ruined his reputation and gave pundits and former players the perception that Arthur had lost all control and respect.
Just a few days after Arthur was fired, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland admitted that Arthur had been a “scapegoat” for the under-performing side.
“To some extent, people will no doubt say Mickey Arthur is a scapegoat in this and, to some extent, he is,” Sutherland had said. “But realistically, as head coach you need to take responsibility for the performance of the team.”