Tech billionaire best-placed for Crowe Bunnies buyout
Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes is rarely seen in public without his Rabbitohs cap. With first and last rights to buy out fellow owners, could he be tempted to burn some cash?
After years of treating India with contempt, then years of being India’s minion, is Cricket Australia about to let Indian billionaires buy into the Big Bash League?
That’s the question on many a zinc-covered lip this week after one of India’s wealthiest men slipped in and out of Sydney with few noticing.
GMR Group chairman Kiran Kumar Grandhi arrived at the SCG just in time to watch Pat Cummins’ team claim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but he had far more pressing matters at hand.
The next day, Grandhi and other representatives from GMR – an Indian infrastructure monolith that builds airports and roads while snapping up cricket franchises around the world – met with Cricket NSW officials.
A more intriguing catch-up, though, was an informal one with incoming Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg at Kyiv Social in Sydney’s inner-west.
Those in attendance were guarded when asked if foreign investment in the BBL was discussed. It’s a sensitive issue: CA has for years steadfastly refused to allow overseas capital to be poured into ailing franchises.
That is set to change under Greenberg, who replaces Nick Hockley in March and understands the financial future of cricket rests with franchise cricket.
After one of the most absorbing home Test series in memory, that might be hard for purists – this column included – to digest but it’s true: epic contests against India and England every four years are no longer enough to fill the CA coffers.
There’s scepticism about franchises owned by the mega-wealthy delivering NBA-like salaries for players, but there will come a time when it will be easier to put cash ahead of country when the cash is too good to refuse.
The England and Wales Cricket Board is in the process of selling the eight franchises that compete in The Hundred, the 100-ball competition introduced four years ago to appeal to a younger, time-poor audience.
“There will be a lot of interest in this part of the world looking at our counterparts in England with some of the sale of their Hundred franchises,” Greenberg told the ABC in early December. “We’re watching that with great interest … I’ve got an open mind to all of those questions. Cricket is changing rapidly. The continued explosion of franchise cricket around the world creates opportunity for players.”
Grandhi is also the chairman of the Delhi Capitals, the Indian Premier League powerhouse if which GMR holds a 50 per cent stake.
GMR also owns the Dubai Capitals in the UAE, sponsors the Seattle Orcas in the US, and last September became a majority shareholder in Hampshire in the UK, including its home ground and adjacent Hilton Hotel.
At the time, GMR said it was “keen and open” to investing in the Southern Brave, Hampshire and Sussex’s team in the Hundred.
Cricket NSW has been pushing private investment in the BBL teams for several years. The meeting with GMR earlier this week is being viewed as the first early step towards selling off half of the Sixers. The Sydney Capitals, perhaps?
CA chairman Mike Baird might be a former NSW premier, but Greenberg is an agile politician in his own right. He’s one of Australian sport’s great survivors.
Nevertheless, the cut and thrust of the NRL and the relatively straightforward job of being the players’ friend as Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive is far easier than rumbling with the ICC and, by extension, India.
Baird has already established a close relationship with Jay Shah, the 36-year-old chairman of the ICC. He and Greenberg already seem willing to work with Indian powerbrokers, rather than continually clash with them, because they know it’s a fight they cannot win.
If that includes allowing Indian capital into the BBL, it will lead to the greatest shake-up of the game here since World Series Cricket.
Shah’s proposal of a two-tier Test format in which the top teams play each other more often is elitist and unfair on minnow nations but highlights the existential threat red-ball cricket faces.
How long will it be before we see the game’s brightest stars signing huge deals to play franchise cricket around the world but playing Test cricket in international windows, like football? It’s not far away.
Grandhi did not respond to requests for comment. I’m told he’s media shy and didn’t want his visit seen as anything more than a casual trip to watch some cricket, look at some infrastructure, meet a few people.
He doesn’t want GMR considered “mercenaries” who want to get their hands all over Australian cricket – although they already have in some respects.
On day one of the Test, some of the company’s representatives visited the SCG’s museum, slipped on white gloves, and were handed one of Victor Trumper’s precious bats. It’s an honour very few are afforded.
Souths rumblings
Speaking of sport-loving billionaires with cash to burn, South Sydney part-owner Mike Cannon-Brookes looms as the man most likely to buy out Russell Crowe if reports about the veteran actor this week are correct.
It can be revealed the Atlassian founder has first and last rights to buy out fellow owners Crowe and James Packer. All three have a 25 per cent stake with Souths members owning the other quarter.
Crowe hilariously dismissed a Daily Telegraph story about him selling his stake as a “legacy media conspiracy theory”, although rumours about him wanting out have been swirling for months.
The truth is a US firm that had done its own valuation of the club approached him last year. Crowe didn’t even respond to them.
It wouldn’t surprise if the interested party was Elevate Sports Ventures, a sports consultancy part-owned and headed by San Francisco 49ers president Al Guido, who told me in Las Vegas last year he was interested in buying into an NRL club.
Guido did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Crowe.
While Packer has effectively been a silent partner, Cannon-Brookes has been his own man since Crowe asked him to buy in four years ago.
His representative on the board is Kelly Morton, the founder of Skye Capital Advisory.
Souths might be a divided club with Crowe and longstanding chairman Nick Pappas at loggerheads, but most agree Morton is a formidable operator and a genuine Souths fan.
Whether Cannon-Brookes, who is rarely seen in public without his Rabbitohs cap, would take majority ownership of the club is unclear. He split with his wife of 13 years in July.
For his part, Crowe doesn’t appear ready to bail out just yet: he phoned coach Wayne Bennett and, tellingly, former captain Sam Burgess to tell them he wasn’t selling.
Crowe wants Burgess, who coaches Warrington in the UK, to replace Bennett when his contract ends in 2027. That’s unlikely to happen unless Crowe is still there.
Sam’s time to shine
In the space of 11 days, teenager Sam Konstas made his Test debut, infuriated the best fast bowler in the world, was shouldercharged by his idol, engaged in some entertaining tongue-fu with the rest of the Indian team, grew his Instagram following from 5000 to 250,000 and received a $225,000 pay rise.
He’s also made 113 runs in four innings. When the hype around Konstas eventually dulls, the number of meaningful innings he compiles will be the only measure that counts.
Like many precocious kids who rise to fame early, he’s quickly polarised opinion with his on-field demeanour.
Let’s defer to former captain Allan Border, who calmly said in commentary for Fox Sports that he felt Konstas had verged from “confidence into cockiness” and that he’d “have a quiet word” if he was the skip.
Perhaps we should cut Konstas some slack. He’s still so beautifully naive. Two days before the squad for the Sri Lankan tour was announced, Australian team officials told him to make sure his compulsory vaccinations when visiting the subcontinent were up to date.
According to team sources, Konstas didn’t cotton on that meant he was going to be picked.
Sabotage scandals
Hasn’t been a great start to the year for racecourses, with the Gold Coast track poisoned on the eve of the Magic Millions carnival and the Norman Robinson Stand at Caulfield set on fire.
Victoria Police charged a 51-year-old Wangaratta man with arson in relation to the Caulfield incident, but Queensland Police are still investigating what happened on the Gold Coast.
All sorts of conspiracy theories are being tossed about concerning the contaminated patch of grass at the home turn with most believing it was either a disgruntled employee or animal welfare activist.
The culprit must have known what he or she was doing to infect such a critical part of the track.
While last Saturday’s twilight meeting was hastily moved to the Sunshine Coast, Saturday’s $14m program was confirmed after jockeys rode the track on Thursday morning.
Magic Millions owners Gerry Harvey and Katie Page must wonder if the Gold Coast should host their horsie extravaganza after a rogue sprinkler forced the 2023 event to be cancelled after two races.
Whoever was responsible for the recent sabotage shouldn’t sleep too easily: they left their shoe prints all over the turf they’d just poisoned.
Tennis influencer
Nick Kyrgios has been racing the clock to overcome an injury in time for the Australian Open but says he’ll be OK to play.
For years, Channel 9 have sweated on the “tennis influencer” – as former US Open champion Andy Roddick perfectly described him this week – going deep into the tournament because he’s a ratings magnet.
They’ll never admit it but some at the broadcaster have grown tired of framing coverage around a player who may or may not play.
Roddick went after Kyrgios like few have after Kyrgios trolled Cruz Hewitt, the 16-year-old son of Lleyton who had posted a photo with Jannik Sinner. Kyrgios has taken it upon himself to continually slam the world No.1 after he was cleared of a doping violation.
“I have decided to lay off because there is this weird thing where he (Kyrgios) wants the likes,” Roddick said on his podcast. “At this point he is a tennis influencer. He lives for likes, he lives in the comments section … The lack of awareness you have with bringing trolls and all of the worst of tennis fandom into a 16-year-old’s comments is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous.”
Yes. It’s ridiculous.