Never an easy day in the office for outgoing Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley, but he gets the job done
“The flight to Brisbane will take off in two hours. The Australian team will be on it. It’s up to you guys (Indian cricket team) now if you want to join us. The rest of the cricket world will judge you based on your decision.”
You ask those who’ve worked closely with Nick Hockley at Cricket Australia about his strengths as a chief executive, and it’s very likely that it’s this episode that most will recall. It’s when he established the well-earned reputation of being the softly spoken leader with a firm resolve who always got the job done. And he’d needed every bit of that resilience when the Indian team management tried playing hardball about travelling to Brisbane for the fourth Test some three-and-a-half years ago.
Hockley had taken over as the interim chief executive only a few months prior following the sacking of his predecessor, Kevin Roberts, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It also came in the wake of reports that Cricket Australia would face severe financial repercussions if they couldn’t have the Indians over that summer.
It was the ultimate baptism by fire for Hockley as the interim chief executive. To start with, he had to deal with the different egos in the Indian cricket board to even get the tour schedule over the line.
Then came the constant nagging about Covid-19 protocols and restrictions from the tourists, culminating in the unofficial threats about them not wanting to leave Sydney. While his aforementioned statement to the Indians might have been a glimpse into his strong-willed approach to holding the reins of Australian cricket, he also showed in that moment of mass confusion that he didn’t mind being on the frontline either.
Another example of this was when Hockley held an impromptu meeting with the Indian medical staff on the sidelines of the SCG Test to clear the air while standing his ground. It eventually turned into an early triumph for a man who many outside the system perceived to be a surprise pick for the top job when it came his way. It would take another six months before he’d finally take over for good.
If he thought it’d only get easier after having dealt with the Indian tour so well, he had another thing coming. Hockley always seemed to be in the firing line. He was challenged at every step. He never seemed to have an easy day in office. He barely had a moment to sit back and soak in any of his major achievements. There always seemed to be some new issue that popped up.
He might very well have to wait another six months to get that opportunity as Hockley begins to wind down his stint as the chief of the Australian cricket board, having announced his decision to step down at the end of the 2024–25 summer.
Regardless of how this last chapter goes, it’s safe to say that Hockley will be remembered as the top man who found ways to wade through some tumultuous waters without ever losing his smile or his composure. He might not always have been the most media-savvy, or someone who gave the best headlines. But like always, he got the job done.
If it was the Indians he had to contend with only a few weeks into accepting the interim position, it took only a handful of months into his full-term tenure before the Tim Paine saga emerged, only days before the start of the Ashes.
Just when he seemed to get through that, there was the whole fracas with Justin Langer and his relationship with his players ending in an unsavoury parting of ways. Once again, Hockley was front and centre, even in terms of the flak that came Cricket Australia’s way from a lot of Langer’s former teammates.
Come the 2022–23 summer, it was his attempt to overturn David Warner’s captaincy ban that in many ways backfired, and ended in further turmoil. He also led the stance in temporarily severing bilateral ties with Afghanistan and sticking only to playing them in world events. He towed the line of the Australian government, even if it meant that he had to deal with a lot of the criticism from other parts of the cricket world.
Through it all, he also played a huge role in changing Australian cricket’s reputation of being overly insular. During his tenure, we had Zimbabwe tour Australia to play a few white-ball games for the first time in nearly two decades. Australia also made a trip to Bangladesh when international borders were still largely shut in mid-2021.
Then there was the mightily successful tour of Pakistan, for the first time in 24 years.
Hockley spoke about abolishing two-Test series and making sure that every Test series had a minimum of three matches.
From an administrative perspective, he led a smooth memorandum of understanding process with the players as well, and likewise handled the drama around the Channel 7 broadcast rights. He also was fully committed in his efforts to make cricket more inclusive in a genuine fashion, resulting in the Multicultural Action Plan, which for once seems to have the legs to achieve some of the goals that Hockley and his team promised to get to.
For someone who wasn’t always at his best when put on the spot in the media glare, I saw a different side to Hockley at a dinner in Sydney where he was guest speaker. He was probably more himself. He spoke endearingly about his upbringing, his parents, his wife, how much Australia meant to him, and the opportunities it had given him. And it further convinced me that his ideas of inclusivity came from a good place.
The last time I met Hockley was on at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, after India won the T20 World Cup. He was in the midst of the Indian fans and sounded excited about Cricket Australia’s plans for the home summer, the Indian Tests in particular. In a way it will be an apt finish, even if it’s unlikely he’ll be called upon to make any dramatic statements. He’ll bow out just the way he came in, as the softly spoken man with a firm resolve who got the job done.
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