Taylor cool on Cricket Australia hotseat

Former Test captain Mark Taylor has downplayed his chances of leading Cricket Australia, with interim chairman Earl Eddings favourite to take over after the organisation was rocked by a ball-tampering scandal.

Taylor was tipped for the hotseat after former chairman David Peever quit Thursday under intense pressure following a scathing review which partly blamed CA for the damaging 'sandpaper-gate' episode.

The respected 'Tubby' Taylor, a current board member, was endorsed by former CA chief executive Malcolm Speed. But he cited a conflict of interest in seemingly ruling himself out.

"Given my media role, I don't believe being chairman would be appropriate," he was quoted as saying by Channel Nine, having recently signed a new contract with the broadcaster which has the rights to the World Cup and Ashes series in 2019.

Taylor's long-time former teammate Ian Healy said he would be "a very good chairman", but the time wasn't right.

"I just think he might be a victim, Tubby, in that anyone who presided over that culture when the Longstaff review was handed down, how can we make them chairman?" Healy said.

Another ex-Test player and current board member, Michael Kasprowicz, could get the nod if CA heeds the call from Speed for a "dyed-in-the-wool cricket" leader to assume the role.

But Australian media suggested Peever's deputy Eddings, who has a corporate background as managing director of a risk-management company, was the frontrunner.

- Last domino to fall -
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