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The board’s AGM was a reminder of the precarious position for the game in the current climate

Daniel Brettig29-Oct-2020If the message about multi-year cycles, expected revenue dips and the need to smooth out cricket’s funding in Australia to cater for year-on-year fluctuations was more or less the same, the difference of medium provided a stark reminder of the new world into which cricket boards must now operate.Cricket Australia’s AGM was held virtually for the first time, with its chair Earl Eddings and a selection of staff webcasting from Jolimont headquarters, while the interim chief executive Nick Hockley and New South Wales directors logged in from Sydney. Elsewhere the chairs of the state associations – CA’s technical owners – passed a constitutional resolution to add a 10th board director in Vanessa Guthrie and also elected the former NSW premier Mike Baird in place of the retiring Jacquie Hey.The headline figure of a A$45 million loss for CA on the 2019-20 season, with its lower box office touring teams from Pakistan and New Zealand, was not in itself a surprise. In fact, CA had recorded a bigger loss in recent pre-Covid times, when it saw funds dip by A$51 million for the 2016-17 summer attended by South Africa and Pakistan. The morning’s key graphic, showing how Australian cricket relies so heavily upon inbound tours from India and England to turn profits above the money already committed to costs and distributions to states, reinforced the notion.Unquestionably this was a world away from some of the projections made by the former chief executive Kevin Roberts back in April, when he suggested the possibility of CA going broke by August. Those kinds of contentions, made at a time that CA was standing down staff, applying for a credit facility and seeking deep cuts from the states and the players, have fortunately receded into the distance. That “crisis”, with the benefit of time, looks very much as though it was an inflated if not confected one designed to allow for cost cuts.What was clear, however, was the fact that amid the global economic shocks provided by a pandemic, on the tail of what was already an increasingly uncertain global media rights market, past assumptions about how much a summer may be worth have already been tested and will be like never before this time around. India’s most recent visit in 2018-19 turned only an A$18 million surplus, as against a bounty of nearly A$100 million in 2014-15, albeit with a World Cup also in tow.The summer schedule finally confirmed with considerable fanfare on Wednesday will provide a more or less identical amount of content for broadcasters at home and overseas as was the case two summers ago: four Tests between Australia and India and six white-ball games. The measure of CA’s response to Covid-19 and also the sustainability of the four-year funding model will be whether it can turn a bigger profit this time.”Media rights globally are under a lot of pressure, hence why we’re always refining our business models,” Eddings said afterwards. “I think the new norm if you like will be very different for all sports and organisations going forward, so as a board we’ll make sure we keep reflecting on what we think is the best business model. Luckily we’ve got great products in Australia, men’s and women’s domestic and international cricket, we’ve also got strong international partners who like showing Australian cricket around the world.”Free-to-air commitmentOf course, Eddings said these words at the precise moment CA stands in an unprecedented dispute with its free-to-air broadcaster Seven, which has challenged the governing body to offer a major discount to the remainder of its A$450 million broadcast rights deal alongside the A$750 million contract signed with Foxtel. That overall A$1.18 billion deal, signed in April 2018, has been a source of many pressure points since, and tellingly made Foxtel CA’s primary broadcast partner, with rights to Tests and most of the W/BBL, plus women’s internationals, shared with Seven.Eddings, though, insisted that free-to-air broadcast would continue to “underpin” CA’s broadcasting strategy. “We’re working behind the scenes with our partners around that, we don’t want to play it out in the media, but we’re confident of our position and we’ll deliver a full summer of cricket as we’ve always said we will,” he said of Seven’s dispute.”I think we’re seeing the emergence of new technologies all the time. We’re also bound by anti-siphoning laws to play international content on free-to-air TV, so that’s a great reach for us, it gets our games and our players out to fans all around Australia, so free to air TV is very important. We understand that free-to-air TV is going through a lot of challenges at the moment, so streaming and digital are increasing, but free-to-air TV will always underpin the value of our TV rights.”Keeping the show on the roadCA’s capacity to keep the global caravan of international cricket from teetering off a Covid cliff is of course at the mercy of health conditions elsewhere, as stressed by doubts around a tour of South Africa next year and the inaugural World Test Championship final scheduled for England soon after it.What’s left in the World Test Championship?•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“I think it’s great that England are going there [South Africa] and obviously we want to tour as well. As you can understand, in Covid times things change very rapidly, so we’ll be watching with interest,” Eddings said. “In the end it comes down to the safety of our people and that’s the most important priority for all of us. Where it’s safe to do so, we will play.”I’d certainly like to see [the World Test Championship final] go ahead because I think we might make it. The UK is going through another peak at the moment, so our intention is to go over there and play, but that’s going to be subject to what the state of the nation is at the time and travel requirements.”We’re all in favour of playing as much cricket as we can. We need to give Test cricket relevance and something for everyone to play for. Covid’s obviously had a big impact on that around countries being able to play each other. It’s going to be a bit glitchy until we get it right, but certainly for the growth of Test cricket we need to have something to aim for, particularly with some of those Test matches that don’t mean anything with some countries. This gives everyone relevance and context.”Either side of the resignation of Roberts in June, CA had dispensed with 40 staff and made somewhere in the region of A$40 million in cost savings, as against a revenue hole that CA still puts at around A$120 million. At the same time, after a long and often fractious process, the state associations accepted a 12.5% reduction in their annual distributions (after originally rejecting a 45% cut), albeit with built-in upside should revenue be better than expected.Similar arrangements have been made with the Australian Cricketers Association, and it appears, relationally at least, that CA is on the improve. Whether the states, personified by association chairs looking on impassively through their webcams as the game’s finances were presented, are wholly content with the game’s current leadership and structure remains to be seen.

Next two games are ‘like quarter-finals’ for England, admits leading batsman after Sri Lanka, Australia defeats

George Dobell26-Jun-2019Joe Root has admitted England’s batsmen “haven’t adapted” to the surfaces they have encountered in the World Cup. England have lost their last two matches to leave their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals uncertain. In both cases, they have failed to chase down targets that might, in recent years, have appeared relatively modest.Now they are in a position where they may have to win both their final group matches, against India on Sunday and New Zealand on Wednesday, to ensure their qualification.Root, who has led the way with the bat for his team, conceded that pitches in the tournament have not been as good for batting as England expected. But while he accepted there are “a number of things we could have done slightly better” in the campaign to date, he still felt they were “more than capable” of making it into the last four.”If you look at some of the par scores throughout this tournament, they have been very different to when we have played in bilateral series,” Root said. “We have turned up to some venues in this tournament and things have been quite different to when we have played one-day series there in the past.”We haven’t necessarily adapted as well as we could have. It is frustrating and very disappointing that we have played in the manner we have in the last two games. There are a number of things we could have done slightly better.”I just don’t think we have played as well as we can. We have made some basic errors that we want to put right in the next two games. But I strongly believe we are more than capable of qualifying for the semi-finals. We have played both these opposition in the recent past and had huge success. So we have got to look at that, the other stuff we have done well throughout the competition and put it all together.”England defeated India 2-1 in an ODI series at home last summer, and New Zealand 3-2 away in 2017-18. But while they have enjoyed a number of decent individual performances with the bat – notably, Ben Stokes passed 80 in the defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia – Root knows they will have to play better in partnerships if they are to win their next two games. And he urged his side to keep calm and continue to believe in themselves and the methods that helped them enjoy success in recent times.”When we have done well, we have had two substantial partnerships through the chase,” Root said. “But we haven’t really managed that in this tournament. We haven’t had two guys who have batted for a long enough period of time – for 20 or 25 overs – to put the opposition under pressure. And generally, when we have chased, that is what has served us well.”We have to be very calm about how we approach the next couple of games. The games themselves might get quite emotional, especially the atmosphere at Edgbaston, so being very clear and precise about the threats the opposition pose is important. And remembering how we look both individually and collectively when we are at our best. Being really strong on the basic stuff has served us well for a long period of time.”It is almost like we see these two games as quarter-finals which, in a way, should serve us really well. You still have to win big games at some stage in the tournament if you are going to go on and win it. Ours have just come a bit sooner than expected.”And it doesn’t really matter how you get there – to the semi-finals – but when you do, that’s when the tournament really starts to kick in.”The reverse of that, of course, is that England could be out before their own World Cup does start to “kick in”. But as Root points out, their fate is still in their own hands. And if they can adapt better at Edgbaston on Sunday, they can still progress.

Asia Cup winners Bangladesh also made significant gains, with Rumana Ahmed rising to No.12 in the allrounders’ list and offspinner Khadija Tul Kubra jumping to 13th among bowlers

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2018India legspinner Poonam Yadav and Pakistan left-arm spinner Anam Amin have entered the top five of the women’s T20I rankings. Yadav vaulted to the third place on the list, while Amin jumped a remarkable 13 places to fifth.Yadav, now only behind Australia pacer Megan Schutt and New Zealand offspinner Leigh Kasperek, ended the recently concluded Asia Cup with ten wickets in six games, including a career-best 4 for 9 in the final, and an economy rate of 3.76. Amin finished with an economy rate of 2.43 in four games, picking up three wickets.Title-winners Bangladesh, who defeated India twice and Pakistan once in the tournament, also made significant gains. Rumana Ahmed, the Player of the match in the final for her all-round display, climbed six places to move to 12th in the allrounders’ list. Offspinner Khadija Tul Kubra gained career-best 537 points to reach the 13th spot among bowlers.For India, captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who was named Player of the Series for her 215 runs in six games, climbed one place to seventh among batsmen, while Smriti Mandhana dropped two places to ninth.

Tom Harrison has signalled his support for a move towards four-day Tests, as part of a wider plan to keep the format viable amid the inexorable rise of T20 cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Mar-2017Tom Harrison, the chief executive of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), has signalled his support for a move towards four-day Tests, as part of a wider plan to keep the format viable amid the inexorable rise of T20 cricket.Speaking to , Harrison warned there was a “risk of loving [Test cricket] to death” unless the sport’s governing bodies were willing to compromise on its status within a packed global calendar. That, he explained, could mean playing fewer matches, over fewer days, but providing more meaning and context to each contest as a trade-off.”It’s about understanding the benefits from a consumer perspective,” Harrison said. “Can we create a better product by introducing a four-day format in certain conditions? My personal view is that I don’t think it works everywhere; like day-night Test cricket, it has to be the right time, right place, right conditions.”We have to take a look at the pressure on boards to keep Test cricket at the heart of their proposition. Four-day Test cricket is a really interesting debate and will evolve and I’m sure we will get there in the end.”Harrison’s comments bring him more into line with the views of the ECB chairman Colin Graves, who has been an advocate of the merits of four-day Tests for some time now.”I had to be convinced because when I started out I was massively against it [four-day Tests], but I am for it because with Test cricket there is a risk of us loving it to death. We have to adapt.”Harrison insisted his change of heart was not simply a ploy to create more space for more T20 cricket in the English summer, not least the new city-based competition that is set to get underway in 2020.However, Harrison did concede that the rise of privately-owned tournaments – in particular the IPL and the Caribbean Premier League, both of which overlap with the English season – was all the more reason to clarify the status of Test cricket in a crowded market. Failure to do so, he added, would be tantamount to “managing [Test cricket’s] decline”.”I am absolutely convinced the game can flourish over three forms,” Harrison said. “The balance between international and domestic cricket will change. We have to be careful about that and that is my fear about private ownership. Controlling private ownership will be difficult and controlling the ambition of very successful tournaments will be difficult.”Test cricket will become special and unique. It’s there and healthy and there will be less volume, which should be seen through the context of it being more positive. In this country Test cricket will be special, an occasion rather than a diet to serve the appetite of the grounds.”Test cricket remains absolutely central to the diet that we put out to our fans every year. We are still filling grounds for Tests and we are still the team that everyone wants to come and play against. A Test series in England is still regarded as the pinnacle for many players from overseas.”

Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the IPL, according to salary figures released by the league on Friday

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jan-2016Virat Kohli is the highest-paid cricketer in the IPL, according to salary figures released by the league on Friday.While Kohli will cost his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore Rs 12.5 crore (approximately USD 1.89 million) from their salary purse, they will actually pay him Rs 15 crore (USD 2.26 million). MS Dhoni, for long believed to be the most expensive IPL cricketer, will be paid USD 1.89 million, which is equal to his purse deduction, by the Pune franchise. Pune secured Dhoni in a draft of players who were part of the suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals franchises.Apart from Royal Challengers, who are paying Kohli and Chris Gayle more than the purse deduction, Mumbai Indians are paying Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu more than the purse deduction they result in.However, contrary to the general perception that quite a few players used to get paid much more than the official purse deduction, quite a few have actually taken big cuts. Manan Vohra, retained by Kings XI Punjab, will get less than 10% of his Rs 4 crore (USD 600,000) purse deduction. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and David Miller are among those getting paid less than the purse deduction they are responsible for.Each franchise is required to spend a minimum of Rs 40 crore (USD 6 million) but not more than Rs 66 crore (USD 9.96 million) on their squad. However, when the franchise retains players, the purse-deduction slots are what are considered for the purpose of calculation of what it can and should spend.Kings XI are thus keen on saving money; after negotiating the salary with Vohra, they can actually spend far less than USD 600,000 on him. However, they will still lose USD 600,000 from their purse ahead of the auction. Royal Challengers, on the other hand, don’t seem to mind spending extra.In the case of former Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals players, though, the new franchises didn’t have any room to negotiate. The BCCI had assured the players left without teams but drafted by the two new teams they would be paid the same amount as they were earning earlier. So while Ravindra Jadeja might take away Rs 9.5 crore (USD 1.43 million) from Rajkot’s purse, he will actually get only Rs 5.5 crore (USD 0.83 million).

The BCCI working committee, which will meet in Chennai on Sunday, is unlikely to impose a life ban on the four cricketers allegedly involved in spot-fixing

Amol Karhadkar18-May-2013The BCCI working committee, which will meet in Chennai on Sunday, is unlikely to impose a life ban on the four cricketers allegedly involved in spot-fixing. The emergent working committee was called to discuss the implications of the involvement of Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila and Amit Singh in the spot-fixing controversy.While some may perceive it as inaction, the working committee’s decision is influenced by a constitutional clause. According to the board’s constitution, a life ban cannot be imposed on a cricketer, who breaches the players’ code, for 30 days after an internal inquiry committee is constituted. “Taking that into account, it would be unjust to ban the players for life before the formal and internal investigations are completed,” a BCCI functionary told ESPNcricinfo, preferring anonymity. “That doesn’t mean the BCCI is taking the matter lightly. Immediately after Delhi Police arrested these cricketers, the Board suspended all of them pending inquiry.”If the BCCI acts in haste and bans players against the provisions of their constitution, the decision can be challenged in court.Apart from briefing all the working committee members on the information passed on by Delhi Police, one of the key matters on the agenda will be to ratify the appointment of Ravi Sawani to lead the one-man inquiry commission. Sawani, head of BCCI’s newly formed anti-corruption and security unit (ACSU), had been appointed to investigate the matter, IPL chairman, Rajeev Shukla said on Friday. The BCCI constitution gives its president the right to appoint an inquiry committee, provided the working committee ratifies it within 48 hours.Sawani has been invited to attend the meeting along with the ICC’s ACSU chief, YP Singh.
Since the BCCI’s ACSU is in its nascent stages, IPL’s anti-corruption activities have been outsourced to ICC’s ACSU for an annual fee of approximately US$1.2 million. The BCCI top brass is inclined to review ACSU’s mechanism. It is learned that the board officials will attempt to identify the loopholes in IPL’s security and discuss means to improve mechanisms that prevent players from being approached by bookies.With the BCCI facing criticism from all corners for ignoring the player-bookie nexus and allowing the fixing syndrome to grow rapidly, their decision to discuss the issue in detail with the ICC ACSU, and not question them, may be viewed as an exercise to pass the buck. But a BCCI source clarified that it was a “genuine attempt” to make the system as foolproof as possible to restore the credibility of the game.Hours after the Royals players were arrested in Mumbai in the wee hours of Thursday, a day after their match against Mumbai Indians, the BCCI suspended all three cricketers pending inquiry. The decision came even before the Delhi Police publicly revealed the evidence collected against the cricketers. On Friday, after realising that former Royals and Gujarat cricketer, Amit Singh was arrested as a bookie, the BCCI suspended him as well.

A Michael Carberry hundred and a fluent half-century from Jimmy Adams led Hampshire to a comfortable nine-wicket win against Somerset

27-May-2012
ScorecardA Michael Carberry hundred and a fluent half-century from Jimmy Adams led Hampshire to a comfortable nine-wicket Clydesdale Bank 40 win over Somerset in front of a 4,000 Taunton crowd.The two openers set their side on course to easily chase down a target of 213 with a stand of 103 in 14 overs before Adams fell for 56. Carberry went on to score an unbeaten 103 off 83 balls, with a six and 14 fours, as the visitors skated to victory with more than 11 overs to spare.Somerset had posted 212 for 9 after losing the toss, Nick Compton (81) and Jos Buttler (71) sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 121 and Dimitri Mascarenhas taking 2 for 17, bowling his eight overs straight through with the new ball.It never looked likely to be enough on a good batting pitch and Hampshire confidently made it three wins from as many Group B games with a convincing all-round performance.Mascarenhas had Somerset under pressure from the start, bowling with superb control from the River End and uprooting the off stump with similar deliveries to remove Craig Kieswetter and Peter Trego. When James Hildreth was caught at slip skying a top-edged pull off Chris Wood, the home side were 25 for 3 in the eighth over.Compton and Buttler were forced to show caution as they set about rebuilding the innings. But Buttler still produced some stunning boundaries all around the wicket to reach his half-century off 59 balls.He averaged 137 in the competition last season and was looking set for another century when run out by Liam Dawson’s direct hit at the bowler’s end having called for a quick single to mid-off.Compton was unable to break loose and hit only six fours in his 106-ball innings, but it was still a valuable knock as apart from him and Buttler, only Craig Overton (20) managed double figures in the face of some sharp Hampshire fielding.Somerset’s score looked 30 below par and they needed to take their catches to defend it. Instead the first chance went begging as Carberry, on 1, was spilled by Compton diving to his left at point off Trego. It proved an expensive miss as Carberry and Adams started scoring as they liked. Adams hit two towering sixes off Peter Trego, managing to hit his own car with one of them.He was first to fifty off 42 balls before lofting a catch to mid-on off Craig Overton. Carberry reached his half-century off 40 deliveries, with seven fours, and the result was never in doubt. Just to make sure, James Vince cracked an effortless 44 not out after Adams’ dismissal and Carberry won the game with the straight six that took him to his century.