Jones 'hurt' by 'poor' Victorian leadership

Australian cricket great Dean Jones has accused Cricket Victoria of having a poor culture, being badly run and showing a lack of respect for past players.

Jones, who starred for Victoria in a career that spanned two decades, recently handed back his life membership and demanded his name be removed from the state's award for the best one-day player.

He said the decision was made because he had been “hurt” by the way the sport has been run in his home state.

"Where it's come from is the lack of culture and vision and strategy by the CV administration has just hurt me," Jones told 3AW's Sportsday.

"I played for 20 years for my state and was proud to have done it (but) their five-step plan from 2017 to 2022 is just so far wrong with where they're going.

"They want to be the No.1 sport in Victoria, well that's not happening (with) the AFL.

"They wanted to make permanent (national team) players, well we haven't got one decent player in the Australian team except for Aaron Finch.

"They pulled the Stars and the Renegades in and they've lost millions and millions of dollars in sponsorship.

"So the administration has been poor."

Cricket Victoria declined to comment when approached by cricket.com.au.

Victoria's two KFC BBL franchises, the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades, were previously run by independent boards and chief executives but were brought under the Cricket Victoria umbrella last year.

Jones claimed former players like Shane Warne, Damien Fleming, Merv Hughes, Darren Berry and Simon O'Donnell all have some sort of axe to grind with Cricket Victoria.

Jones, who is the coach of Pakistan Super League side Karachi Kings, applied for the top jobs at the Stars and Renegades last year, but was overlooked in favour of David Hussey and Michael Klinger.

While Hussey had no previous senior coaching experience, he is both a former captain and batting coach at the Stars as well as Victoria’s state side, while Klinger moved straight into a coaching role shortly after he retired from playing.

"These are proper blue-chip jobs to get but yet they've given jobs for the boys and I think it's an insult, not just to me, but overseas (candidates)," Jones said.

"I just find the leadership and where it's going is overwhelming.

"People will be listening and saying "Oh, Deano's up to his own thing' but it's not ... I just feel that the lack of respect shown to the past players and how the game is being run within Cricket Victoria is poor."