Cricket Australia announce 40 staff to lose jobs as governing body’s COVID-19 response under question
CA Chairman Earl Eddings says mass job losses were unavoidable even after the removal of CEO Kevin Roberts, insisting cricket has not been immune from the financial impacts of COVID-19.
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Cricket Australia has confirmed 40 jobs will be cut throughout the business on a dark day for the under-siege governing body.
Despite the forced resignation of Kevin Roberts as chief executive and a reset in financial estimates, CA Chairman Earl Eddings said mass job losses were still unavoidable, insisting cricket was not immune from the impacts of COVID-19.
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As revealed by The Daily Telegraph, all major domestic competitions including the Sheffield Shield and WBBL will run as full competitions, however, some lower-tier and under age programs have been paused for at least 12 months.
Eddings refused to reveal who had lost their jobs from the national coaching structure, but it is understood that batting coach Graeme Hick and physiotherapist Kevin Sims will not continue with the men’s side.
Hick, who is highly rated by the players, has been a batting coach with the team for almost seven years. His work ethic and willingness to do extra sessions with batsmen earned him the respect of the Test side.
The Zimbabwean-born Hick played 65 Test matches and 120 one-day internationals for England between 1991 and 2001.
Andrew McDonald, who was appointed assistant coach last year and led the side when Langer had a break from the ODI tour of India in January, will have to shoulder a greater load with Hick gone.
CA staff were left disgruntled back in April when 80 per cent were stood down on 20 per cent pay, but the pain only intensified yesterday as dozens were laid off permanently.
“Throughout COVID-19, the need to work closely with the cricket community and to move quickly as circumstances have changed has never been more important,” Eddings said.
“With increasing clarity about the impact of COVID-19, we have managed the financial impact on our organisation, our people, our partners and players. 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.”
Cricket Australia revealed an action plan presented to staff on Wednesday which identified cost reductions of approximately $40 million a year, to partially mitigate the impact of the coronavirus.
However, job cuts were still deemed necessary with morale at the organisation at an all-time low.
“We recognise that this is a difficult time for Cricket Australia employees, particularly for those staff members affected by these redundancies and their families,” said Eddings.
“However, our responsibility is clear: to navigate a path for cricket through this period of uncertainty and disruption to ensure we come out the other side sustainable in the short term and prosperous in the long term.”
CA will look to slash travel budgets, marketing and advertising, cutting bonuses for senior management and keeping executives on ongoing pay reductions.
Australia A and some underage representative teams will be paused, but CA will continue domestic competitions and inclusion programs in full.