Cricket Victoria reinstates ‘programs and people’ after 2020 cuts

Hiring after firing: Cricket Victoria is busy filling positions lost in staff cuts when Covid hit last year.

Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins.

Its financial position holding up better than expected through Covid, Cricket Victoria is steadily filling jobs lost in last year’s staff cuts.

CV has appointed a number of cricket managers in the past few months to serve its 17 regions, with former Ringwood president Mark Freeman the latest hiring.

He will oversee the south east bayside and inner south metro areas.

The other cricket managers are Stephen Box (Outer East Metro), Sharon Lynas (Inner East Metro), Emma Gallagher (Gippsland), Alistair Burge (North East Country), Peter Brear (Northern Metro), Daniel Trevillian (North West Metro), Karl Mayne (Inner West Metro), Josh Beaumont (Barwon) and Jacob DeAraugo (Mallee Murray and Northern Rivers).

The South East Country, Western Country and Central Highlands, Outer West Metro and Southern Metro positions have yet to be filled.

Dandenong fast bowler Emma Gallagher is the Gippsland cricket manager.

CV is interviewing applicants this week.

Chris Harris (Renegades) and Clinton Kennon (Stars) are area managers.

The number of cricket manager positions was reduced to four in last year’s staff cuts, which extended across the CV workforce.

Former champion fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick, a coaching and talent specialist, was one of the more high-profile employees to leave.

Premier Cricket manager Mike Ronchi and long-time District/Premier administrator Peter Binns, state participation manager Chris Gorrie and long-serving grassroots cricket manager Di Day also departed CV.

Community cricket was hit in the areas of participation and engagement in schools.

Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins, appointed this year, said “field force’’ positions were returning because Cricket Australia distribution cuts had not been as severe as initially thought, nor had revenue been as affected as predicted.

“When the pandemic broke out, there really were questions about whether there would be any cricket at all,’’ he said.

“That really threatened our revenue. But as you would have seen last summer, the Big Bash particularly but also the Boxing Day Test was played and there was very little disruption.

“It’s looking very promising heading into this summer as well.

“So while our revenue has still been hit significantly, it’s probably not to the depth that we first feared.’’

He said it had allowed CV to channel about $1.2 million worth of “programs and people’’ back into community cricket.

Cummins said he understood the cuts “possibly didn’t have as big an impact as maybe thought they would’’.

“I think there were some inefficiency and so that allowed us to correct some of that. And then of course there wasn’t as much cricket as there should have been either,’’ he said.

“We’re also of the view that helping our clubs and associations doesn’t just have to be achieved by having people in cars driving around. That’s a very analog solution in a digital age. One of the few positives of Covid is learning how things like video conferencing and Microsoft Teams and zoom can help deliver our programs and support across the state. In fact we’ve found that attendances for a lot of the seminars we hold are far, far higher since we’ve been running them digitally rather than in person.’’

He said Cricket Victoria was also looking to tip money into umpiring, with the board regarding it as a “priority’’.

Cummins said the umpiring department suffered under last year’s cuts.

He said CV was also putting more resources into junior programs such as Blast.

“It’s focusing on getting kids in entry-level programs, ultimately I guess putting as many kids into the top of the funnel as possible to increase our participation base.’’

Cricket Victoria made two key appointments in August, Daisy Brooke as general manager of community cricket and former Prahran batsman Liam Murphy as general manager of Premier Cricket.

CV said Brooke had operated her own management consultancy for the past two years, consulting to organisations including the AFL and the Zurich Foundation.

She had been director of development at Sailing Australia and an executive manager at the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.

Brooke played county cricket in England for Somerset and was a Cricket Centre of Excellence scholar with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) at Loughborough University.

Murphy moved across from Calisthenics Victoria, where he was chief executive.