EXPLORING SOLUTIONS FOR POST-CORONA WORLD

CA will explore creative solutions to stage India series

by Bharat Sundaresan • Last updated on Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 04:44 PM

CA & BCCI won't rule out any scenario, including playing the Tests in front of empty stands. © Getty

Cricket Australia and the BCCI are working together on finding the "most creative ways" to deliver India's Test tour Down Under later this year. Kevin Roberts, CA CEO, revealed on Tuesday (April 21) that the two boards won't rule out any scenario, including playing the Tests in front of empty stands, to ensure that the series takes place as per schedule.

"We'll explore all viable options, many of which wouldn't have been contemplated until now. We are in a different world where all of a sudden we're being grateful for what we have rather than lament about things that we don't.

"Fortunately we have a bit of time to work through the different scenarios for the India series but we aren't ruling out any possibility for that at this point in time," Roberts said, adding that the onus though would be on making sure the health and safety of all concerned isn't compromised.

Roberts, however, was non-committal on whether one of those scenarios could involve India playing five Tests this summer, at the expense of the one that Afghanistan are originally scheduled to play. But he didn't completely rule out that possibility either, while admitting that playing five-Test series against each other in the future was a "shared desire" for both boards. For now though, the planning on CA's front is based on a four-Test series.

"Just like both of our nations play five-Test series against England. So it's something that we're both committed to in the future. But the big question is whether or not we can bring that in before the next Futures Tours Programmes cycle in 2023.

"We don't know what realistic prospect there is of that next season but certainly with the changing landscape and an ever-changing one that's moving every single day, we won't rule out the possibility of that till we get closer to the time," he explained.

It's no surprise though that CA are admitting to pulling all stops to not lose out on a highly-anticipated and equally-profitable international summer. It's been a week where CA first reported a significant loss in cash reserves, which then subsequently led to the standing down of a majority of the staff, including head coaches, on a 80 per cent pay-cut until June 30.

Last Wednesday, Roberts confirmed to the media that the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on global markets has already led to a AUD 20 million setback for CA. And defending the cost-cutting measures that CA have employed over the last week or so, he also insisted that without these "preemptive measures" they would have been left with "nothing to fight with" in case India's tour doesn't take place.

"In a pre-Coronavirus world, we were already projecting that our cash and investments would reduce to about 40 million dollars, at the start of September this year. And that they would bounce back very quickly by the start of the Indian Test series to about a 100 million dollars, which is approximately about the level of cash and investments that we had at the end of March.

"So 20 million would take us from a low-point of 40 million dollars in cash and investments and any further shocks would take us far lower than that. And then, if you contemplate the prospect of the international season in particular being affected, we have an issue of hundreds of millions of dollars on our hands. So, it's very important that we try and plan proactively for that," he said.

Roberts further insisted that the austerity measures had already saved CA all of AUD 3 million, which has added to their overall savings for AUD 20 million, and that they were just "one of the many levers" that the board had pulled to safeguard their interests. He also expressed his sympathy for all the staff that had been stood down, who he'd addressed earlier on Wednesday.

"The pain our people are enduring who are being stood down from next week onwards is part of the motivation for us to navigate this situation as best we can. We didn't start with the stand downs, what we started with was acknowledgement that most activities in cricket needed to pause as a result of the emerging situation, and when you pause those activities you have a lot of people who were previously working on those activities who aren't required to work on them anymore.

"That's an unfortunate reality of the situation. I feel desperately for each and every one of them and I hate the fact we had to move to that after all of the fantastic progress we've made as an organisation and our culture," he said. Roberts also added that CA hadn't overreacted while taking some of their seemingly drastic calls.

"We're dealing with a situation that's hitting us unfortunately at the low point of our cash cycle over four years. We reach a point in early September where if there's more shocks as we've had over the last month or more, where our reserves are very thin and in fact effectively we'd chart a path to zero if we didn't take drastic action.

"If we weren't doing that, we would be managing this situation by looking in the rear vision mirror and that's not what we're charged to do. We're charged to manage the situation that we're presented with, and that which we see in the future, so we're looking forward and taking those actions as we're required to," he said.

Roberts believed that there were a few factors that had led to the sudden downturn in CA's cash reserves. The leading cause he felt was the fact that this was anyway the deficit year in addition to the impact of the pandemic on the share markets. He also ascertained that CA's practice of investing in equities was not just justified but also had been a saving grace-an additional AUD 10 million-in these uncertain times.

India's tour to Australia as of now comes on the back of the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to begin in October. And Roberts revealed that the CA are still preparing to host the mega-event, which will see 16 teams travel to Australia, even if at this stage it looks unlikely for it to go ahead considering the numerous travel restrictions around the world.

"What we are very conscious of is our responsibility on behalf of international cricket to do everything possible to stage the event. Because we might not generate financial returns from that event, but the bigger returns from the broadcast rights around the event that are generated by the ICC are very important to all of our counterparts around the cricket world. So it's incumbent on us to do everything possible to stage and host the T20 World Cup," he said.

For now though Roberts and CA are banking on the Indian series going ahead to ensure that their cash-bank is in order while simultaneously preparing for the worst.

"What we need is a plan to take 25% of Cricket Australia's operating expenses out next financial year with a further plan to go deeper if need be and something similar with the states and territories. So that we take the appropriate action up front and a plan to go deeper if required," he said.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

DIGITAL

Search This Blog

le options, many of which wouldn't have been contemplated until now. We are in a different world w 2525B CDFHDFHN

CA will explore creative solutions to stage India series

FROM AROUND THE WEB

Comments

Post a Comment