Cummins raised objection to Cricket Australia’s Alinta deal

Test captain Pat Cummins fronted Cricket Australia’s chief executive Nick Hockley with ethical objections to Alinta’s contract with the Australian team before the energy company and governing body agreed to end a deal worth almost $40 million.

CA recently confirmed it was re-entering the market for Australian men’s team sponsors after concluding that the Alinta partnership, originally signed for four years, would only be extended for one more season.

Pat Cummins emblazoned with the Alinta logo earlier this year.Credit: Getty

While CA denied that it had made the mutual non-renewal decision due to Cummins’ views, the fast bowler and climate repair advocate made it clear he had shared the players’ concerns about who sponsored them with Hockley.

Specifically, they related to the fact that Alinta’s parent company, Pioneer Sail Holdings, has been listed as one of Australia’s highest carbon emitters.

“Nick lives just down the road, so I catch up and chat with him quite a bit,” Cummins told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “More so than ever before you’re seeing players’ personalities and interests and passions shine through and have a bit more of a say than maybe in the past.

“I think the most obvious, front-of-mind things you can see is who we partner with. So I hope that when we think of who we want to align with, who we want to invite into being part of cricket, I hope climate is a real priority.

“I’ve got my own personal views so when it comes to personal sponsorships there are some companies I wouldn’t want to align with. When we’re getting money, whether it’s programs for junior cricket, grassroots, things for fans around Australia, I feel a real responsibility that with that, we’re doing on balance what is the right thing.”

In 2018, that balance included the poor reputation of the Australian men’s team in the wake of the Newlands scandal and the summary departure of financial services firm Magellan, leaving Alinta as one of few willing sponsors.

When first asked to appear in advertising for the deal, some Australian players were privately less than enthused, but felt they had little choice but to participate due to the team’s poor standing at the time.

In the five years since, the improved image of the team helped Cummins to feel within his rights to discuss the need for greater ethical considerations in the choice of sponsors - a pointy issue this week after the Australian women’s netball team objected to a lucrative deal with Hancock Prospecting.

Netball Australia announced on Monday that its chairperson Marina Go would step down but remain as a director, replaced by Wendy Archer, as players refuse to wear uniforms emblazoned with the Hancock Prospecting brand. Players have expressed solidarity with squad member Donnell Wallam, a Noongar woman who has raised concerns about the company’s record on Indigenous issues.

At the same time, the International Cricket Council has unveiled a sponsorship deal with the Saudi state oil company Aramco, raising questions among players and spectators at the men’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

“There’s a lot of good initiatives out there and passionate people, but I’d love for some of that passion to be driven into real action,” Cummins said. “I hope that the purpose of the sport is to hopefully be a good thing for society and who we partner with, what decisions we make I hope are in the best interests of not only the sport but our society.

“If the last 12 months are anything to go by, it’s becoming ever more relevant, and in somewhere like Australia we’ve got no excuses. We’ve got so many resources and opportunities out there. I hope whenever we make decisions and look at what fans want, is it the right thing, is it the best thing for cricket, I hope climate is a big part of that conversation.”

Earlier this year, Cummins organised a Cricket For Climate forum in Sydney on what cricket could do better to reduce its carbon footprint, inviting influential figures from across the game. A parallel program to install solar panels at local clubs has been the start of practical action.

Asked about the enormous number of flights taken by international cricketers, Cummins said that greater effort to offset the carbon footprint of this travel could no longer be a mere talking point - action was urgently required.

He cited the recent travel of the Australian team from Brisbane to Perth to play a single T20 match and then return in little more than a day as an example of what should be looked at.

“Scheduling games where you fly for four hours, play a game and then 24 hours later turn around and fly back across the country, it’s something where you think ‘could we have done something better’,” he said. “Playing back to back games at Manuka was a good thing.

“We’ve got a big footprint, there’s no doubt about that, but with initiatives to help offset it, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, we can’t be doing all that travel and not be putting anything back in the bucket.”

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