Emerging cricketers hit for six by $2.5 million collapse of tour operator

The collapse of a tour operator specialising in junior cricket tours has left dozens of Sydney parents and leading coaches out of pocket to the tune of $1 million and shattered emerging players’ dreams of a trip of a lifetime to India and the Caribbean.

Calypso Destinations, owned by Sydney businessman Kevin Tyler, organised overseas and Australian tournaments for talented young cricketers in NSW under the tutelage of former international and state players.

Kevin Tyler of Calypso Destinations, which organised cricket tours but was this month entered into liquidation.Credit: Instagram

But after cancelling a fully paid-up Indian tour at the last minute in April with no refunds, the company was this month placed into liquidation.

According to documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Tyler resolved to have the company wound up with creditors owed $2.53 million.

The sudden downfall of the tour operator has infuriated coaches and parents and devastated up-and-coming players who were booked for trips abroad.

Among those affected are close to 100 families, from Sydney’s eastern suburbs to the city’s north-west, as well as organisations such as the prestigious King’s School in North Parramatta.

Eighteen-year-olds Neel Kanbargimath, Isaac Earl and Rory Grieve, who train at Hills Cricket Academy. They paid their own way for a cricket trip to Barbados and lost the money when it was cancelled. Credit: Wolter Peeters

Former NSW and Tasmania batsman David Dawson’s eastern suburbs academy, Pro Performance Cricket, was due to take a touring party of 29 young cricketers, 14 parents and three staff to Bengaluru for 12 days of matches, training as well as watching an Indian Premier League game, for which each paid at least $7500 including flights.

But two days before they were to fly out on April 14, they were notified by Tyler that the tour was cancelled because of “circumstances beyond our control”.

“The blood drained from my body”, one parent said in a tour WhatsApp group, reacting to the news, adding that she was not volunteering to tell her son.

Dawson said the abandoned Indian adventure and another tournament Tyler cancelled on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in July had cost parents of children coached at his academy more than $380,000 and caused reputational damage to his business, which also sustained losses of $40,000.

“It’s devastating on a lot of fronts,” Dawson said. “First and foremost, devastating for the kids and their parents who have invested a lot of money to try to put together a wonderful trip and experience for their kids. It’s devastating from a business sense. It’s very challenging to manage the fallout from this to make sure we’re doing all we can to support and assist our community.”

Customers say that losses incurred as a result of Tyler’s company going under exceeded $1.1 million among families of cricketers training at seven cricket academies, the academies themselves and other organisations. They include the King’s School ($46,475) and Baseball NSW, which is owed $202,635.84, according to a creditors report filed with ASIC by liquidator Shumit Banerjee, the director of Westburn Advisory.

ASIC documents show Tyler decreased his shareholding in Calypso Destinations on April 3, bringing on an investor, Kumar Satish, from Pune, India, as a minority stakeholder. By mid-April it had ceased trading, Tyler told the liquidator, and it was wound up with only $2418 in the bank and $15,000 in total assets.

Kevin and Andrea Tyler are listed as the largest creditor ($348,000). Others include National Australia Bank ($189,853.85), American Express ($128,000) and small business loan firm Bizcap ($124,000).

“Whilst my appointment is in its infancy, my preliminary investigations indicate that the impacts of COVID on the travel industry likely contributed to historical losses, which were carried forward up until my appointment,” said Banerjee, the liquidator.

Tyler pictured at the Sydney Cricket Ground.Credit: Instagram

“The director [of Calypso Destinations] has further advised that the tightening of the availability of credit placed greater strain on the company’s ability to obtain finance to meet current liabilities.”

Tyler did not return calls and text messages or answer questions sent to him by this masthead.

Tyler, who has captained Parramatta in fifth grade in the NSW Premier Cricket competition and played in other lower grades, had previously organised tours to destinations including England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka that provided experience in testing foreign conditions for ambitious teenagers striving to reach gthe professional ranks of the game. They had mostly been run well.

The first sign of major trouble came early last month when his company ran out of money to keep an eight-team inter-academy tournament he had organised going in India. It could only be completed because one of the players’ parents stumped up $88,000.

‘It’s a sad situation. People far smarter than me will judge [Tyler] for what he’s done.’

Former NSW representative cricketer Daniel Smith

“We just got stuck in India and we were lucky one of the fathers got us out of it,” said Brendan Lyon, the brother of Test spin bowler Nathan Lyon, whose Lyon Cricket Academy operates in Sydney and regional NSW.

Lyon and former NSW batsman Nic Bertus, co-owner of the Hills Cricket Academy, were also due to take teams to Barbados in July for an under-19 tournament there that was priced by Tyler at $8500 a head and which had been fully paid for.

That has also been called off with no restitution including for players themselves who took up jobs to save up and pay for the tour themselves.

“We want the best result of the kids, that’s why we’re really shattered by the whole situation,” said Lyon, who is fundraising to try and resurrect the trip.

“We see our academies as crucial to NSW and Australian cricket. We play a big role in producing a lot of the cricketers in the state. My energy is just going into ‘how do I get those kids there?’”

Bertus feels particularly slighted as Tyler worked in an office upstairs at his indoor cricket centre at Seven Hills and he knew him well enough to invite to his wedding.

“He doesn’t seem to understand what he’s done to people and how it’s affected them,” said Bertus, whose Hills Cricket Academy is owed $113,898.99, according to the creditors report.

“We’re just basically going to front the costs and re-book the boys on the [Barbados] tour. Just to make sure they get over there. We’re really determined to get them there and have the experience of a lifetime.”

Former Australian Test off-spinner Jason Krejza also coaches children whose parents have been left out of pocket by the travel operator’s collapse. He said some had fundraised to send their children overseas in the first place.

Daniel Smith, a former NSW batsman who once held the record for the state’s highest score in an Australian domestic 50-over match, worked closely with Tyler as a contractor tasked with securing sales for Calypso Destinations.

He is resigned to not seeing the $78,000 in unpaid wages owed by the company but said that was not his priority.

“It’s a sad situation. People far smarter than me will judge [Tyler] for what he’s done,” Smith said.

“But it’s not my focus and concern. It’s just about the kids and the parents. These kids are the ones who have been hurt by all this.”

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