In Cricket Australia 40 became a dreaded number on Wednesday. The apex body for cricket governance Down Under has reduced its annual budget by Australia dollar 40 million, leading to 40 job cuts, which amounts to 14% of its total work force.
With the latest redundancies the total job cuts in fund-starved Cricket Australia has gone past 200 across headquarters, States and territories ever since the cricket operations are halted due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
According to a report on Cricket Australia official website, job losses at head office had been lessened due to the improving season outlook and the JobKeeper program.
Remaining staff members who had been stood down in late April are set to return to full-time work from July 1.
Cricket Australia is heavily banking on a “A$300 mn home series” against India to come out of the financial mess.
Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings has described the cuts in jobs and budget as necessary to “partly mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on revenue and other factors such as biosecurity costs and match attendances”.’
The Women’s Big Bash League and the Big Bash League competitions have had impacts minimised, and will maintain the same number of games as last summer with full fixture lists expected to be announced mid-July, states the report.
“There will still be painful decisions for some parts of our organisation, but we have worked hard to carefully develop plans to protect our investment in community cricket and high-performance cricket, while ensuring the game’s financial sustainability,” said CA’s interim CEO Nick Hockley, appointed on Tuesday to replace Kevin Roberts.
He said the cuts would “help create a more sustainable financial position to manage four-year cycles that can involve annual revenue swings of $100 million depending on the cricket schedule”.
In addition to removing 25 per cent of its own cost base, CA had sought to reduce funding to the sStates and territories but NSW and Queensland have so far balked at that.
The players’ union, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, has also lodged a formal dispute regarding CA’s revenue forecasts.