Heal was appointed interim chairman of a new-look New Zealand Cricket board this week.
The 61-year-old is an experienced administrator with an impressive resume. He is chairman of Pioneer Generation, Southern PHO, the University Bookshop and the Southern Rural Fire Association, and is the former long-serving chief executive of CRT Otago.
He is also a former chairman of the Otago Cricket Association and has been on the board of NZC since 2008. You might say he knows a googly from a doosra.
Heal believes the first priority for the new board will be to make the most of the 2015 Cricket World Cup.
''It is only 18 months or less away and it is critical from every which way you want to measure it,'' Heal said from his home in Cromwell yesterday.
''It is critical for us to reconnect with our fans. It is critical to increase our playing numbers and it is critical because it generates us cash.
''It is a very lumpy revenue line for New Zealand Cricket and if we can get it up to where the current forecasts are, it will set cricket up financially at all levels.''
Not everyone has been happy with the way the sport has been governed in the past year or so. A group headed by former New Zealand cricketer John Parker agitated for change. Part of the group's agenda included getting more cricketing people on the board.
NZC approved a new constitution in July and at a special general meeting in Auckland earlier this week, delegates voted in the new board.
''The lobby group that criticised NZC said there were insufficient cricket heads around the table,'' Heal said.
''We now have Sir Richard Hadlee, Martin Snedden and Geoff Allott. I think that is a fantastic balance in the board ... and their concerns have been addressed.
''I think I've been appointed as the interim chair to keep some continuity. The board will decide who will be chairman [during its first meeting on October 23] and I'll decide in the next month whether I put my name forward.''
Heal said NZC was in the public arena ''24-7'' and not every decision was going to be popular. But he firmly believes the previous board was a safe pair of hands.
''To people who say that New Zealand Cricket is not a business - I completely disagree. It is a $50 million business. About three-quarters of our revenue comes in US dollars.
''It is a complex exporting business, to be blunt. If it makes money, then that money filters through to grass-roots cricket.
''There will always be criticism because some people have said the organisation is too commercial or some people see the players too dominating. I'm not a populist; I just like to do what is best for New Zealand Cricket, and that is my job.''
