Kevin Roberts hints at expanding India-Australia series to generate revenue
Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has stated that all options will be considered for hosting India for one more Test match than scheduled in December-January. Australia is also going with plans to stage the T20 World Cup in the original dates instead of working on contingency plans.
Cricket Australia have decided to stand down all but a handful of employees on 80% wage cuts until July for a saving of only A$3 million as part of an estimated A$20 million in savings. As ESPN Cricinfo reported that CA is paying its stood down staff the equivalent of JobKeeper (A$1500 per fortnight) as it is not eligible for the government payment for not having actually lost any significant revenue, they are working on getting money into the system. One such possibility is to play one extra Test match against India in December and January.
"If you contemplate the prospect of the international season, in particular, is affected, we have an issue of (losing revenue of) hundreds of millions of dollars on our hands. We’ll be doing everything possible to launch and stage a season in 2020-21. We won’t rule anything out in terms of the Indian series. Along with the BCCI and Indian players, we want to stage a series that inspires the cricket world, whether or not there are people in the stands,” he said. “We need to face all possibilities. Fortunately, we have a little bit of time to work out scenarios," Roberts said in a press conference, reported AP.
Australia sealed their border for six months, effectively leading to chaos regarding the arrangements for the T20 World Cup. While an ICC spokesperson stated that they are not in a hurry to postpone the world event and working on contingency plans, Roberts is clear that they are on the same page too. But the stand down might affect the board officials but Roberts revealed that executives and a skeleton staff are retained on 80% of their usual salaries.
"I feel desperate for our people who have been stood down through this period and emphasised that to them. 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 an 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."
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