Cricket Australia backs Ashleigh Gardner as vice-captain amid separation row with ex-wife Monica Wright; updates policy to avoid conflict of interest

Cricket Australia (CA) has thrown its weight behind Ashleigh Gardner and remains "very supportive" of her in the aftermath of the vice-captain's public fallout with ex-wife Monica Wright. 

It was Wright who made a public revelation about Gardner's relationship with teammate Georgia Voll and accused her of cheating, resulting in the breakdown of their marriage. Wright had also called out Cricket Australia for remaining tight-lipped about the matter and letting Gardner remain vice-captain alongside Tahlia McGrath.

However, CA has backed Gardner to continue in her role as vice-captain to Sophie Molineux. Cricket Australia's CEO Todd Greenberg said there is a "huge and high regard" for Gardner.

"It was discussed yesterday at the board level," Greenberg was reported as saying by Cricinfo in Darwin. "The board asked for an update on it, which we provided, and the outcome of that is the board are very supportive of Ash in the role as she was appointed to the vice-captaincy, [there's] huge and high regard for Ash."

Gardner thanked Cricket Australia for its continued support and also issued a public apology to Monica.

"While my separation from my wife is a personal matter, I understand my current relationship status needed to be addressed by Cricket Australia given my position as vice-captain," Gardner posted on Instagram.

"I am grateful that the CA Board has chosen to support my continued leadership. I look forward to playing a strong role as a leader and providing the best possible support for my teammates in the season to come.

"I am grateful for the time Monica and I shared and sorry for the pain this has caused. I wish her nothing but happiness and success in the future.

"I won't be making any further public comment on this matter at this time and ask that the privacy of those involved is respected."

Greenberg also admitted that Gardner's situation required Cricket Australia to update its Respect at Work policy to ensure that a person in a leadership position doesn't fall into a conflict of interest in terms of sharing input in selection calls while being in a relationship with a teammate.

"We've got a Respect at Work policy, which we've now put some additional measures in place," he said. "Because we want to make sure that either the perception or the real conflict of selections, even though the vice-captain doesn't have a say in selections in the team, the leadership role and the influence that person might have to put guard rails in about how the policy works. Outside of that, we've deemed it a personal matter."

"That's right," Greenberg replied when asked whether Gardner would have to avoid being part of conversations when Voll's position on the team is up for debate. "And we think that's important. Even if there's not a conflict, even if there's a perceived level of conflict, not just from the outside, but from other teammates or from staff.

"We're in some difficult territory here because, like all sports, we're all learning a little bit about how these high-performance environments can operate. So we want to be making sure that our policies are keeping up with the realities, and I think that's exactly what we've done. The board was super supportive of Ash and have been since the start."