Covid costs cricket $50m so far

Nick Hockley begins as CEO of Cricket Australia with a hole in the budget and more pain on the horizon but is confident of success.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley has stepped into the role fulltime after being the interim boss. Picture: Getty Images

Covid cost Australian cricket $50 million in 2020-21 and newly appointed chief executive Nick Hockley says the game is bracing itself for even greater expense in an Ashes summer with six international teams due to tour.

Speaking exclusively to the Cricket Et Cetera podcast, Hockley revealed the additional costs incurred in the BBL, state cricket, the Indian Tests and the women’s series against New Zealand totalled almost $27m.

The new CEO indicated head office would be looking for a way to get players and states to share the one-off expenses — a signal that CA will be looking to modify elements of the MOU in negotiations which are due to start soon.

Former chief executive Kevin Roberts had predicted a $30 million impact this time last year and eventually lost his job as staff and the states bristled at his pre-emptive cost-cutting measures.

Loss of revenues, including ticket sales, pushed the total impact of the pandemic on the 2020-21 summer much higher.

Hockley warned that with two Ashes series as well as tours by India, Afghanistan and New Zealand in 2021-22 the financial impost on the game could be multiples of last year.

“It cost us an additional $27 million to put the season over above what it would normally and that’s the charter flights, that’s taking hotels exclusively to create our biosecure bubbles and equally we were significantly down on gate — the Sydney Test we were allowed 25 per cent crowds,” Hockley told Cricket Et Cetera.

“The overall hit (cash flow impact) was over $50 million but then when you think back to June last year and what it might have been I think we came through pretty well.

“What we are facing now is compared to two international touring teams coming this summer we’ve got six, we’ve got India women’s, we’ve got women’s and men’s Ashes, then we’ve got Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and New Zealand.

“Hopefully things are open once you are in Australia and you are through quarantine, but we’ve certainly got the expense of three times as much quarantine as last year.”

The AFL and NRL were reported to have suffered a combined $250m loss of revenue in 2020 with the pandemic having a more significant impact on their seasons.

England’s cricket board reported a $30m loss in May this year and a significant drop in revenue. Cricket Australia accessed a $50m line of credit last year and claimed in its annual report it was aiming to deliver around $40m in savings this financial year.

Around 40 staff lost their jobs because of the cost cutting which saw assistant coaches dismissed from the national teams.

“We are not unique to world sport, we all have to do more with less, but I think we found ways of doing things much more efficiently, we are doing a lot more work virtually which has cut our travel bill significantly and we found some more efficient ways of doing things using technology and will continue to do so,” Hockley said.

Hockley was appointed to the position permanently during the week after being brought in as interim CEO 11 months before.

One of the first issues he will face is renegotiating an MOU with the Australian Cricketers Association.

That process turned ugly in 2017 when previous chair David Peever insisted on attempting to overturn the revenue share model which has been at the core of the relationship between the players and administration.

Hockley and the new ACA chief Todd Greenberg have, however, indicated a desire to work as a partners and there appears to be no desire from head office to take on the players again.

Hockley did indicate players and other parties would be asked to share in the burden of the one-off costs imposed by the pandemic. While falling revenues affect the players’ pay pool it is protected from costs such as those incurred by paying for hotel quarantine and charter flights.

“The MOU has performed well through this period because while we talked about that over $50 million overall hit I think the players are partners in the game and they have enjoyed a very, very good growth in revenue and we fought very, very hard to protect that revenue but equally if there are head winds then they share in that,” he said.

“I think the discussions are going to be are going to be around player welfare and player wellbeing.

“We’ve worked very closely with the ACA over the past 12 months and they have been fundamental to supporting and helping everyone get through given the obvious challenges.

“With these one off costs it is how do we share them amongst the game and that’s a discussion we are having with the states and territories and we’ll be having with the players.

“That’s really about the sport being fiscally responsible and making sure we direct our resources to those things that drive the greatest growth for the game.”

In a wide-ranging chat, the English-born Hockley revealed the inspiration to succeed in his adopted country came from his father, Tony, who was a celebrated craniofacial pediatric surgeon.

“He gave his life to the NHS (National Health Service) and he was something of a pioneer, he worked at a time when there were lots of strides in his particular area,” Hockley said.

“We lost him about 10 years ago and three weeks before he died we were at Edgbaston and I said ‘I am going to propose to this girl, she’s from Australia’.

“We had a long chat about emigrating and the one thing he said to me was ‘I really support you, you are moving a long way from home but when you get over there you make a bloody contribution’ and I hope he would be quite proud and I am going to continue to try and make him proud.”

Hockley Sr is best known for successfully separating three-month old conjoined twins, Sanchia and Eman Mowatt, in a 16-hour operation in 2001.

“I saw them, I went back a year ago, they had a big conference in Birmingham and the twins and their other sister came and sang for the room, all of dad’s colleagues were there and it was a pretty special moment,” he revealed.

“I had a lovely note from their father David congratulating me on this role, they are an inspirational family.”