Cricket Australia commissions report into future of the game here and overseas

Cricket Australia has commissioned a report into the way the game operates and how it will navigate an environment where players are beholden to IPL clubs before country.

Cricket Australia has commissioned one of the world’s largest consultancy firms for a wide-ranging report into the way the game operates Down Under.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is in the process of reviewing the structure of Australian cricket as the sport heads into a brave new era in a rapidly-changing cricket landscape.

It’s understood BCG has been given a broad remit to look into the way cricket should be run in the future, particularly on the back of the broadcast rights and player pay deals signed earlier this year.

Under the microscope is the way CA and its state associations – effectively CA’s owners – share resources. Fresh commercial opportunities are also being explored.

As Australia men’s and women’s teams contest the World Cup and a series against the West Indies respectively, the cricket world remains in a state of flux.

The global game is evolving quickly, particularly with the advent of the franchise leagues around the world, several of which are now populated by the satellite teams of Indian Premier League clubs.

The future of world cricket may see countries navigate an era where players are contracted to an IPL team and loaned out to national teams. Picture: AFP

IPL teams are also looking at employing players on 12-month contracts under which they would effectively be loaned to their national teams from their clubs, rather than the other way round which has long been the case.

CA has worked with BCG in the past, including commissioning a report in 2021 which explored the game’s finances, and in 2008 when BCG devised a plan for a World Test Championship, a push supported by CA and eventually implemented by the ICC more than a decade later.

BCG – one of the widely-recognised big three of management consultancy firms – last month appeared before a Senate inquiry into consulting.

While not perfect, relations between CA and the states are understood to be significantly stronger than they had been across 2020 and 2021, a period in which state pressure contributed to the sacking of CA chief Kevin Roberts and departure of chair Earl Eddings.

Roberts was replaced, first temporarily and then permanently by Nick Hockley, while Eddings has been succeeded by Lachlan Henderson and in turn former NSW Premier Mike Baird.

CA’s board earlier this year joined several other sports governing bodies to pledge its collective supportive to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Among the several flashpoints in the relationship between the states and CA in recent years were the latter’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state funding model.

CA declined to comment about the report.