A $5 million financial loss for the Ashes summer and the prospect of two more loss-making seasons ahead have placed further heat on Cricket Australia to maximise its windfall from the next domestic broadcast rights deal.
CA announced the $5 million deficit for 2021-22 at the governing body’s AGM in Hobart on Thursday, citing reduced UK media rights value and biosecurity costs last season as the major factors.
Big Ashes Test crowds did not quite manage to put Cricket Australia into the black last summer.Credit:Chris Hopkins
While gate and corporate hospitality revenue for the Ashes was up by more than $20 million on the returns of 2020-21 – when India toured with significant crowd restrictions – the need for a major broadcast rights uplift is clear.
This summer’s Tests against West Indies and South Africa, and next season’s against West Indies and Pakistan are expected to force CA to delve deep into its reserves – $141.6 million current assets and $214.6 million total assets. The Twenty20 World Cup, due to start on Sunday in Geelong, is expected to haul in a return of around $20 million for CA.
Also ahead next year is the renegotiation of the collective agreement between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association, with pressure to raise player salaries for the Big Bash League in particular.
CA’s chair Lachlan Henderson has agreed with the state associations and the ACA to set up a joint committee that will investigate the possibility of private investment in the game – though some remain strongly opposed to the idea.
Cricket Victoria, which has seen its former chair David Maddocks elected to the CA board on Thursday, is among privatisation’s most vocal detractors.
Further dollars are soon to come in from a recently signed $350 million India broadcast rights deal with Disney Star, while CA is also testing the market for its domestic rights, including significant interest from Paramount, the owner of Ten.
Paramount has flagged interest in securing rights to international matches and also the Big Bash League, which has been subject to heavy criticism and legal action by Seven, the current joint rights holders alongside Foxtel.
The election of Clea Smith to the CA board, meanwhile, may be the last time a director is chosen via the polarising nominations committee model under the governing body’s constitution.
Victorian Smith, who played one Test, 48 ODIs and 13 Twenty20s for Australia between 2000 and 2011, joined Maddocks in being added to the board following the retirements of Mel Jones and Michelle Tredenick.
Her appointment was a surprise to some state associations, which had not been expecting the addition of a new director on Thursday.
States are currently in the final stages of discussing and drafting an alternative constitution for CA, likely to restore the rights of the six states to choose their own representatives after a decade of “independent” directors chosen via nominations committee.
Under that scenario, CA’s board would be composed of six representative directors tied directly to state boards, and four independents chosen for their skill sets and backgrounds. One independent vacancy remains to be filled on the current board.
Alongside Smith and Maddocks, the South Australia-nominated director John Harnden was returned for another three-year term, meaning he is now the only board member to have served prior to the 2018 cultural review of CA.
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