Cricket NSW will consider removing former Australian opener Michael Slater from the Hall of Fame and revoking his Life Member status following his raft of domestic violence charges.
Last week, the 55-year-old received a suspended four-year prison sentence from Judge Glen Cash in Maroochydore District Court after pleading guilty to seven charges for a series of domestic violence offences that related to a woman in the Noosa region between December 2023 and March 2024, including two counts of choking, stalking, assault, and burglary. He was immediately released on a fully suspended sentence having already spent more than a year in custody.
Slater, who represented Australia in 74 Tests and 42 ODIs from 1993 to 2001, was inducted into the Cricket NSW Hall of Fame in 2015 alongside Mollie Dive and Arthur Mailey. However, in the aftermath of his legal proceedings in Queensland, Cricket NSW confirmed to Fox Sports it would consider Slater’s status in the Hall of Fame and as a Life Member.
Hall of Fame inductees are based on recommendations made to the Cricket NSW Board.
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Slater’s fall from grace has sent shockwaves through his hometown of Wagga Wagga, which is grappling with how to appropriately celebrate the significant achievements of a sporting icon who has since tarnished its reputation.
Last year, following a month-long debate, the Wagga Wagga City Council voted 4-3 in favour of renaming Michael Slater Oval, a cricket field that forms part of the city’s Bolton Park sporting complex. Former Wagga Wagga mayor Rod Kendall argued against the move, attributing Slater’s criminal behaviour to mental illness.
The venue, located in the city centre, was named after Slater in 2014, seven years before he was first charged with domestic violence offences, while fellow international cricketers Mark Taylor and Geoff Lawson also have ovals named in their honour.
“There’s a lot of sympathy for Slater in Wagga Wagga,” local councillor Jenny McKinnon told Fox Sports.
“He’s a Wagga boy. People know him and people know his family. People are sympathetic about the mental health issues he’s had.
“At the same time, the convictions he has are for very serious matters and I think we need to be thinking about the victims of the crimes, and also what the messaging is for children who use those ovals.
“Slater still has his incredible sporting records. They can’t be taken away from him.”
The WWCC has yet to action any changes to the oval’s name, postponing the decision-making process for nine months.
“A workshop for councillors to rediscuss a potential change to the oval’s name will be held in the future, although a time for the workshop has not yet been set,” a WWCC spokesperson said in a statement to Fox Sports.
Disgruntled locals took matters into their own hands last year by spray-painting over the Michael Slater Oval sign, an act of vandalism McKinnon praised at the time. In March, anonymous vigilantes covered the sign with a big sticker that read ‘End Domestic Violence’, which the council promptly removed.
“Council responded very swiftly by covering up the amended sign and then removing it entirely in the same week as International Women’s Week,” Wagga Wagga resident and local reporter Chris Roe explained to Fox Sports.
“It was a surprising response.”
Elsewhere, Wagga Wagga’s Estella Public School will consider renaming one of its four sporting houses – Slater House – after receiving feedback from parents and community members.
The sporting house names were chosen in consultation with the community when the school opened in 2021, before Slater’s domestic violence charges came to light.
“Estella Public School has received some feedback from community members regarding the name of Slater House,” a NSW Department of Education spokesperson said in a statement to Fox Sports.
“The issue will be discussed at the next P&C meeting.”
When local media outlets reported on Estella Public School’s Slater House last month, several parents expressed their anger online. Roe, who has two daughters in Slater House, contacted the school on multiple occasions to voice his concerns.
“It kicked off quite a furore,” Roe said of the social media backlash.
“I think given it’s a new school, it’s only four years old, maybe it’s time that we change the name of the house.
“Who would it hurt to do that anyway?”
Slater amassed 5312 Test runs at 42.83, including 14 hundreds. Following his retirement in 2004, he embarked on a television career, commentating for Channel 9 and Channel 7.
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