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'It's an insult': Aussie legend's scathing attack on 'weak' Cricket Victoria

Shane Warne and Dean Jones, pictured here at Victoria Derby Day in 2006.
Shane Warne and Dean Jones at Victoria Derby Day in 2006. (Photo by Paul McConnell/Getty Images)

Australian cricket great Dean Jones has launched a scathing attack on Cricket Victoria, accusing the governing body 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.

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“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 on Wednesday evening.

“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.

“The 18 premier clubs are supposed to produce all these permanent Australian players. It is so weak. It is just awful the way it has been played.

“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.”

Dean Jones drags Victorian legends into beef

Victoria's two 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.

The Stars and Renegades have both lost major sponsors - Optus and Mars respectively - this 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, neither of whom had previous senior coaching experience.

Dean Jones, pictured here addressing the media in a press conference in India in 2019.
Dean Jones addresses the media in a press conference in India in 2019. (Photo by Himanshu Bhatt/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“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.”

Cricket Victoria boss Shaun Graf responded by saying he didn’t understand where Jones’ attack was coming from.

“We’re in the dark as much as most people to be quite honest, Dean is the only one that really knows why,” Graf said.

With Yahoo Sports Staff