Gardner Gets Selection Safeguards From Cricket Australia
This change immediately affects Ashleigh Gardner, the Australian women’s team’s deputy captain, and her relationship with Georgia Voll. Cricket Australia modified its Respect at Work policy during a board meeting, introducing clear safeguards for selection meetings involving players in leadership roles who have personal ties to other team members.
Gardner must refrain from participating in any discussions about Voll’s selection under the updated system.
This role includes conversations with national selectors as well as Australian women’s captain Sophie Molineux. Gardner will continue to serve as vice-captain with Tahlia McGrath, according to the CA board, which said it fully supports the decision.
“The board requested an update on it, which we provided, and the outcome is that the board is very supportive of Ash in the role since she was appointed vice-captain; [there is] huge and high regard for Ash.” “We have a Respect at Work policy, and we have now implemented some additional safeguards.
Because we want to ensure that either the perception or the actual conflict of selections – even tho the vice-captain has no input in team selections – the leadership role and influence that person may have to put guardrails in place about how the policy operates. Aside from that, we’ve decided it’s a personal concern’, CEO Todd Greenberg told Cricbuzz.
CA knew of Gardner’s interaction with Voll before it became public. Gardner’s wife Monica Wright blasted the governing body for neglecting to disclose Gardner’s leadership status when the romance was revealed and their marriage was dissolved.
Gardner admitted on August 13, 2026, that her role in the leadership group required an official CA response.
Why do the safeguards apply to alleged conflicts rather than confirmed conflicts?
Greenberg highlighted that the requirement to recuse is independent of the presence of a genuine conflict of interest. The policy is intended to address situations in which a disagreement can only be noticed by those outside the team, colleagues, or support professionals working in a high-performance environment.
“That’s correct. And we believe that is significant. Even if there is no conflict, there is a perception of conflict, not just from the outside, but also from other team members or personnel.
We’re in some tough ground here because, like all sports, we’re still discovering how these high-performance venues work. So we want to make sure that our policies are in line with reality, and I believe that is exactly what we have done’, Greenberg added.
The amended policy reinforces CA’s position that governance structures in professional sports must include perception in addition to fact. The board has said that the policy modifications are limited to the governance of selection-related conversations and do not include the personal aspects of the case.
Did Voll’s circumstances influence his choice of captain?
In addition, Greenberg addressed whether the circumstances surrounding Gardner’s relationship with Voll influenced CA’s decision to choose Molineux captain of the Australian women’s squad earlier in 2026. He clarified that the circumstances had no bearing on the task.
The new Respect at Work policy, according to the board, is a procedural governance modification that has no disciplinary ramifications. Gardner’s vice-captaincy remains in place, and CA has drawn a clear distinction between policy changes addressing governance selection and particular instances that it considers private.
