Australia’s cricket board have projected a nearly 25-30% plunge in revenue that underpins player payments as the domestic game struggles to cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported on Thursday.
A 25 per cent reduction on the pre-pandemic revenue figure of $407 million would take it down to about $305 million, just below the initial $323 million expected before the $1.2 billion TV deal was signed in 2018. This would see players lose $28 million in payments.
Why Cricket Australia’s revenues matter to the players ?
The players union, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, confirmed to Reuters that they had received revised revenue projections from CA and would hold a board meeting to discuss them later on Thursday.
CA Chief Executive Kevin Roberts said last week the board was facing a shortfall of about A$80 million in revenue due to COVID-19 and there was a high likelihood Australia would not be able to host the Twenty20 World Cup in October-November. The bleakest scenario looks to have been avoided, however, with India’s lucrative four-test tour, worth an estimated A$300 million in revenue, set to go ahead in the home summer.
CA had more than A$90 million in reserves at the end of March but furloughed about 80% of its workforce in April to save some A$3 million in costs, a move that drew widespread criticism.
Several of Australia’s state associations have also made deep staff cuts in recent weeks.
Roberts last week flagged another round of cost-cutting, saying no part of the game would be “untouched”.
$1 = 1.4497 Australian dollars
