Celebrating 175 years - Melbourne Cricket Club

Time called for
gentleman David
His corporate connections were many
and his clout in high places
considerable, so the club was
fortunate indeed to have David Crawford
sitting around the committee table for more
than 15 years before his mandatory
retirement on March 19.
Acknowledged by former president David
Meiklejohn as especially valuable in our
negotiations with stakeholders over a long
period as committeeman, treasurer and
vice-president, the Crawford years started
with a bang as the club’s ground management
role came under threat following changes to
the MCG Trust in 1998.
The Meiklejohn recollection was of a
senior businessman (BHP, Foster’s, Lend
Lease et al) who had contacts galore among
all of our key stakeholders and the
government. “His views and advice were
respected by everyone,” said David, who
particularly admired his common-sense
approach to issues.
David Crawford would be reluctant to
accept such praise, claiming only to have
been part of a team that helped to negotiate
arrangements with the AFL and the cricket
bodies that secured the club’s tenure at the
MCG and facilitated redevelopment of the
ground.
“I was lucky that my professional career
allowed me to work with the AFL and the
cricket people over the years, and of course
that proved useful to the club,” was his modest
assessment. This, from a man who authored
four comprehensive Crawford Reports into
structural reform involving the AFL, cricket,
soccer and the future of sport in Australia!
MCG TRUST CHIEF LEAVES A LASTING LEGACY
John Wylie
CLUB NEWS
He credited David Meiklejohn with
running the 2002-06 redevelopment project
from the committee’s perspective and was
effusive in his praise of CEO Stephen Gough
and his team’s outstanding work on that
mammoth project.
In later and less hectic years he has chaired
the sub-committees responsible for the
refurbishment of the Great Southern Stand
and the Yarra Park revitalisation project,
which has guaranteed an abundant supply of
water for the MCG precinct in perpetuity.
Both projects had the financial support of
the State Government and David sees this
The big ground lost a most enthusiastic
and influential figurehead with the
retirement in March of MCG Trust chairman
John Wylie, who had been steering the
sporting ship since 1999.
His 14-year tenure covered perhaps the
most dynamic period in the ground’s history
with long-term agreements being forged
between the trust, the MCC, the AFL and the
cricket bodies to facilitate massive projects
such as the redevelopment of the northern
side of the MCG.
John Wylie was often central and critical
to the negotiations surrounding the ground’s
relationship with its various stakeholders,
most notably the AFL and the State
Government where his political savvy and
commercial acumen shone through.
He chaired the MCG redevelopment
steering committee and took particular
XXXXX
David Crawford and (top) with former Governor of Victoria and MCC committeeman John Landy.
involvement in MCC affairs as integral to
our management – not ownership – of the
MCG on behalf of the Victorian government
and its public.
With some freeing up of a busy schedule,
we wondered what eventual retirement might
bring. “Well, I’m ringing from Vail,
Colorado, in a party of 18 on a skiing
holiday. A group of us have been skiing
together for more than 40 years, since
university days.”
We get the drift, David. Thanks for a
mighty contribution to the MCC and to
sport generally.
interest in the establishment of the
National Sports Museum in the new
northern stand, leading the chase in
securing $25 million from the Federal
Government to fund the fit-out.
More recently, in 2009 he assisted the
club in securing a five-year extension to
the ground’s lynchpin contract with the AFL
and two years later helped a popular cause
in having live gambling odds banned from
being broadcast on the MCG screens.
Another important initiative was
bringing Yarra Park under the wing of the
trust with management delegated to the
MCC, another demonstration of the trust’s
close working relationship with the club.
John won’t be lost to sport, however,
having accepted the position of chair
of the Australian Sports Commission
in Canberra.
4 MCC NEWS March 2013