Cricket Australia boss Kevin Roberts exits over handling of coronavirus crisis

Cricket Australia CEO Kevin Roberts is out over his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has been axed.

Cricket Australia has announced the departure of Kevin Roberts from its chief executive’s role following an emergency board meeting last night which sealed his fate.

The organisation has appointed Nick Hockley, chief executive of the ICC T20 World Cup, as interim chief executive until a permanent replacement can be found.

Hockley has over a decades experience with major sports events including ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). At LOCOG, he was Head of Commercial Negotiations, where he and his team spent 6 years developing and delivering the London 2012 commercial program.

Cricket Australia’s interim CEO Nick Hockley.

At ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Hockley was General Manager, Commercial & Marketing, where he was primarily responsible for marketing, ticketing and hospitality.

More recently he was appointed to the role CEO of the successful women’s T20 World Cup and the men’s which is due to be held in October/November 2020 but is expected to be postponed because of the pandemic.

Chairman Earl Eddings confirmed the moves today.

The fate of Roberts was sealed on Monday night with the board of the organisation holding an extraordinary meeting over his handling of the pandemic.

Roberts fell out of favour with players, states and his staff for his handling of the financial impact of the pandemic.

The Australian understands, however, that it was strains in his relationship with the board that proved the last straw.

Roberts took over from James Sutherland in October 2018 despite criticism of his performance as chief operating officer during the memorandum of understanding dispute the previous year.

There were a number of candidates for the job but the then chairman David Peever pushed for Roberts to get the job.

Peever, a former boss at Rio Tinto, was forced to stand down soon after engineering his ally in the industrial dispute into the role and was replaced by Earl Eddings.

Roberts worked hard to rebuild relationships with players and the states, but any goodwill he established has dissipated with his handling of the alleged financial crisis.

Eddings was in Sydney on Monday and flew back to Melbourne in the afternoon ahead of a board meeting last night. He is understood to have been working with key members of the board to manage the sacking and replacement, but the situation moved faster than expected.

A spokesman for Cricket Australia said it had no knowledge of the move against the CEO, which appears to have been an operation hidden from elements of the administration perceived to be loyal to Roberts.

A spokesman had said on Sunday the chief executive had the full backing of the board.

Speculation about replacements is running wild through cricket with former candidate John Warn’s name bandied about. Another candidate, John Harnden, is on the board but busy with other key roles including the F1 Grand Prix and the T20 Cricket World Cup.

Warn refused to comment when contacted by The Australian. Christina Matthews, the chief executive of the WACA, was another shortlisted candidate for the CEO’s role in 2018.

Belinda Clark, who is on the executive, is another name thrown into the mix.

Eddings had found himself increasingly burdened with negotiations as Roberts’ relationship grew further strained with states and the Australian Cricketers Association over the past two months.

The game was shocked when Roberts began to inform senior players that Cricket Australia was in danger of going broke before the end of the year and only widespread cuts could save it. He launched a program to reduce state grants, the players’ pay pool and staff costs by standing down almost 200 from the organisation on 20 per cent pay. Even coach Justin Langer has been working part-time since the stand-downs.

All parties pushed back against his bleak forecast and the past two months have seen the game descend into an ugly public dispute while the football codes addressed the situation and resumed.

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Key states, including NSW and Queensland, refused to accept the cuts. The players lodged a dispute notice on Thursday over a reforecast of their revenue and staff have been leaking against the CEO to the media.

The situation was moving fast with sources suggesting Roberts would be sacked late last week. It is understood the board was moving to put in place the pieces behind the scenes when the news broke on Monday.

It is an ignominious end for the CEO whose predecessor, Sutherland, was in the role for 17 years, but the pandemic has seen Raelene Castle exit the top job at Rugby Australia and NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg lose his job.

Pressure mounted on Roberts further last week with the ACA filing the dispute notice that could see the game in another ugly MOU spat with its players and NSW chairman John Knox writing to Eddings asking him to convene a council of states and the ACA to deal with the crisis.

Roberts has insisted, despite an improving forecast for the summer, that the game is still in financial crisis, pointing to other costs because of the pandemic.

The Australian understands that BBL executives are now budgeting for 80-100 per cent crowds this summer. The improving situation may have come in time to save staff who were bracing for news about redundancies on Wednesday.