Greenberg, who played grade cricket in Sydney and worked for Cricket NSW before moving into rugby league, was Canterbury Bulldogs chief executive before he took on the NRL’s top job, replacing David Smith and presiding over the league for four years.

His tenure ended in early 2020, when Nine, owner of this masthead, criticised the NRL’s management and effectively locked Greenberg out of future broadcast rights talks.

NRL chairman Peter V’landys stepped in, becoming perhaps the highest profile sports administrator in Australia, while Greenberg moved to his current role with the cricketers’ union, where he has overseen a period of industrial relations peace in cricket.

In his NRL roles, Greenberg worked closely with Baird when he was NSW premier, and the pair have enjoyed a friendly relationship– epitomised by how the most recent players’ pay deal was negotiated without any public mudslinging.

Recently, Greenberg called for an independent review into how the women’s game was run in Australia, following revelations about the former Victoria coach Dulip Samaraweera.

“These are extremely serious findings that may shock and upset many in the cricket community,” Greenberg said at the time.

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“The safety and wellbeing of our members remains paramount. The leaders in Australian cricket now need to ensure that every possible measure is taken to ensure things like this never happen again. We have raised this imperative with Cricket Australia.”

While other sports such as the AFL have previously appointed a players’ association chief to the top job – such as Gillon McLachlan’s predecessor Andrew Demetriou – cricket has tended to a more conservative position.

However, Greenberg has made a point of looking at the overall picture in his role and has been a conspicuous presence on overseas tours such as the drought-breaking trip to Pakistan in 2022, and Test tours of India and England last year.