Reports | Kevin Roberts’ position weakens after financial rumblings with ACA and staff

In the last few months, Kevin Roberts was at the centre of many controversies - first while announcing Cricket Australia’s drop in stocks after putting money in the equity market and then standing down employees due to the lack of funds in the coffers. That didn’t go down well with the Australian Cricketers Association, who sensed foul play in that and went for a board-level meeting, led by Shane Watson. 

Now, all the defending seems to have been on the negative side as Roberts, one of the most respected CEOs in Australian Sport, is reportedly set to be axed from the CA board very soon. Cricbuzz reported that CA will move on without Roberts and appoint an interim in his place at their board meeting on Wednesday. 

While Roberts spoke a couple of times to the media since those early announcements, defending his decision of standing down the staff and how the pandemic had left CA in dire situations, it has failed to satiate the major stakeholders. On Thursday, there was a report on “the Australian” that the players had filed a dispute notice against CA's projections with the issue set to end in court if not sorted out at early.

The latest decision might have stemmed from the fact that Australia’s situation has been developing rapidly, with the government managing to flatten the Coronavirus curve, but there has been no change in stance from the Chief Executive. Roberts had estimated a loss of 50 million AUD as part of the "economic pain" that CA would have to face in case the cricket, including the India tour, was played in front of empty stands. But that hasn’t made many board members happy.