Former Australian team physio sues Cricket Australia for unfair dismissal

Alex Kountouris, the former Australian cricket team head physio who worked closely with players from Shane Warne to Pat Cummins, has launched unfair dismissal action against Cricket Australia.

Kountouris was let go earlier this year during a raft of cost-saving cutbacks by the sport’s governing body.

He has filed wrongful dismissal proceedings with the Fair Work Commission in Melbourne.

Kountouris was a familiar face around the Australian men’s team for more than a decade, becoming a member of the support staff in 2003 and then becoming head physio in 2006 when the long-serving Errol Alcott departed after 22 years to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

He had worked with the Sri Lankan national team in the late 1990s before beginning his lengthy association with Australian cricket.

In 2015, Kountouris became Cricket Australia’s head of sports science and sports medicine and was a key figure in managing the workloads of fast bowlers to avoid them breaking down and suffering from chronic injuries.

In that position and earlier as the men’s team physio, he played a role in the longevity of Australia’s current generation of pacemen – Test captain Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – who have played 247 Tests and taken 1006 Test wickets between them.

Notably, he also had a close working relationship with Michael Clarke in his time as an Australian player, given he endured various injuries during his career, including ongoing back problems.

Kountouris later led the development of concussion protocols in Australian cricket following the death of Phillip Hughes in 2014 and represented Cricket Australia at a Senate inquiry into head trauma in sport in 2023.

During the infamous homework affair in India in 2013, Kountouris advocated for fines rather than suspensions for four players – Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja – who did not complete tasks asked of them by team management. The quartet were excluded from the third Test in Mohali. Australia lost the four-Test series 4-0.

Since Kountouris was made redundant, Cricket Australia has advertised for a head of performance.

According to the job description, the successful candidate will be “responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, integration, and delivery of sports science, sports medicine and performance technology services across Australian cricket”.

The job advertisement said the successful applicant would be Brisbane-based and oversee the support of Australian players with performance analysis, athlete management, fitness, injury prevention and rehabilitation, wellbeing strategies, and performance psychology.

Kountouris, who has also been an adjunct associate professor at LaTrobe University since 2017, could not be reached for comment.

Cricket Australia declined to comment on Tuesday.

Cricket Australia’s head people and culture Allison Robison and head of technology Don Elliott also left in July as part of a restructure which took place just months after Todd Greenberg took charge as the game’s new chief executive.

Under the changes, national teams boss Ben Oliver was also removed from the organisation’s executive and now reports to James Allsopp, the executive general manager of cricket, rather than to Greenberg.

The Kountouris matter is being heard by Fair Work Commission deputy president Richard Clancy and is listed for a phone conference next Monday.

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