The Anthony Peden affair is part of a worrying trend.

Peden was the boss of the New Zealand cycling squad who abruptly walked away from his job in recent days.  Subsequently stories have come out saying that there was a bullying and intimidatary regime under his watch.  There were concerns about a drinking culture and finally that he was having an inappropriate relationship.

Now all this may be true but at the same time is any of this actually our business.

There are accusations that all the news stories are part of a smear campaign run by disgruntled athletes and their acquaintances.  And this is where it gets worrying.  Cycling New Zealand processed Peden’s performance and behaviour and the 2 parted ways and that’s where it should end for the coach.

He’s lost his job and his reputation within his chosen career but is there any need for the wider population to hear about his alleged faults?

It’s part of the modern complaint where an allegation is all it takes to convict. The rise of the MeToo mindset has made employers and managing authorities wary of collateral damage but as it stands Peden is being slowly crucified in the court of public opinion.

Underneath it all is the nagging worry that Cycling New Zealand is another sporting organisation where the management is a little out of their depth.

Anthony Peden was always an alpha male.  He was always brutally competitive.  His nickname was the Weapon for goodness sake. He lost his place at the Athens Olympics because of a drug scandal.  He didn’t take a performance enhancing drug but he did take a banned substance and at the time Cycling New Zealand scolded him for not consulting his coach. He is a driven, confident island of man.  He’s Australian after all.

So in taking him on Cycling New Zealand must have known this was a man who would take no prisoners.

This winner-take-all attitude could explain the bullying and intimidating behaviour.  It takes a certain single-mindedness and aggression to reach the top in any sport.  So with the Weapon in place you have to wonder whether Cycling New Zealand then put in checks and balances so that he didn’t bite off more than anyone could chew. You have to wonder why such a coach was also in charge of selection which is coming home to bite everyone

In allowing Cycling New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand to now leak like a sieve about Anthony’s shortcomings is also a sign of poor management.

New Zealand is a small country and the born leaders are few and far between.  So many under-qualified people are being put in positions where they fail.  Ex athletes do not automatically make the best coaches.  Weekend Warrior administrators do not become high quality professional managers when there sport suddenly receives a wad of cash.

And it’s not just sport.  Good nurses do not automatically become great bosses of a ward.  Great teachers are not necessarily the people to become CEOs of the million dollar businesses our bigger schools have become.

We have an awful lot of enthusiastic amateurs running big budget enterprises and their boards of control need to keep a much closer eye on them or it all falls apart as Cycling New Zealand is starting to find out.