CA tells players financial forecasts will be reviewed after broadcasters show them the money
Concern over TV partners meeting their next payment in September has shaped CA’s conservative strategy for advising players, who pushed back aggressively on a forecast 48 per cent fall in revenue.
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Cricket Australia has told players they will provide an updated financial outlook later in the year, but want to see their next broadcast cheque arrive first.
Concern over Channel 7 and Foxtel meeting their next TV rights payment in September has helped shape CA’s conservative strategy for advising players, who have pushed back aggressively on a 48 per cent reduction in forecast revenue.
After Channel 9 kicked back hard against the NRL and with the AFL now reportedly in danger of restarting its season in the precarious position of not having a deal locked in with 7 and Fox, CA powerbrokers feel they can’t make any assumptions about their own $1.2 billion TV arrangement.
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The players’ association is fuming about the lack of detail CA has provided to support predictions for such a massive cut and is demanding mediation as a result.
As it stands they are adamant the game is in strong financial shape and point to the fact CA chief Kevin Roberts declared the Indian Test summer a “9 out of 10 chance”.
However, Cricket Australia don’t see how they can be made to answer for a forecast, particularly one made in the midst of a pandemic and are making no apology for adopting a glass half empty approach with their predictions in a global recession.
It’s understood they have told players they will revisit their forecast in October and adjust it accordingly based on the significant milestone of whether the broadcast payment has been made in full.
By that time, the game also expects to have secured a bank loan and might know specifics over how the $300 million Indian tour will be managed.
CA sources aren’t backing away from their certainty India will tour, but argue it wouldn’t be prudent to forecast it as a done deal while ever the Australian and Indian international borders remain closed, and with no specific detail on how a Government exemption for Virat Kohli’s team would work or under what conditions matches will be played.
Privately, CA is bemused that the Australian Cricketers Association is kicking up such a stink when there will be no cut to player salaries over the next two years.
They maintain it’s nothing more than a forecast, which doesn’t bind the players to anything should the summer ultimately go ahead and refill the game’s coffers.
The ACA says that’s an oversimplification, and that the proposed $86 million hit to the payment pool – or adjustment ledger – will diminish the ability they have this year to fund important projects like grassroots cricket, retirement funds and female game development.
Their biggest beef is that CA submitted its forecast as a short email, which they say is scant on detail and lacking in good faith – therefore giving them, in their view, avenue under the MOU to seek mediation.
The rapid escalation in this latest pay war may be explained in part by the fact that scars remain from the 2017 MOU dispute, an ugly standoff where CA chief Kevin Roberts and ACA Chairman Greg Dyer were also front and centre.
Cricket Australia’s position on the forecast revenue with players has been weakened by the fact a couple of state associations have also so far rejected proposed cuts of 25 per cent and that there was mass uproar over the standing down of 80 per cent of CA staff at the start of the COVID crisis.
Originally published as CA tells players financial forecasts will be reviewed after broadcasters show them the money