Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has paid the price for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, with the board dumping him effective immediately.
Roberts has been shown the door despite having more than a year to run on his contract. He took over from long-serving boss James Sutherland in 2018.
But his support has disappeared quickly in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, with the CA leadership pushing for large staff cuts at the governing body, reductions in pay to players, and a significant decrease in the grants given to each state.
Those within the game have questioned the need for such radical action, given cricket has barely been impacted by the pandemic.
CA is increasingly confident that this summer's flagship event, a four-Test series against India, will go ahead, with large crowds possible as restrictions are eased further in coming months.
Unlike their AFL and NRL counterparts, CA has not yet had to cancel a match that would have been shown on free-to-air television, with two one-day internationals against New Zealand in March the only international matches to fall by the wayside.
It leaves the game in a strong position to resist any moves from Fox Sports and Seven to re-negotiate their six year, $1.18 billion broadcast deal. With this summer's Indian series expected to generate significant interest from overseas broadcasters, it was a struggle to see how Roberts could justify his claim that the game was nearly broke.
Roberts brought to the top job the baggage from the 2017 pay dispute, where he alienated many of the game's top players in his role as the lead negotiator for CA.
Last month, former Test batsman Usman Khawaja said he was "shocked" by the financial problems facing CA, a sign that Roberts' relationship and communication with the players was lacking, given at one stage he was warning the game could be broke by August.
Exactly 100 days ago, Roberts was at the MCG where a record crowd of 86,174 saw the Australian women lift the T20 World Cup trophy. It marked a turning point for the game, yet just months later the CEO was proposing cutting rounds from both the WNCL and WBBL tournaments.
The man who oversaw the T20 World Cup, Nick Hockley, has been named as the interim replacement for Roberts, with the board to conduct a search for a long term replacement.
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/kevin-roberts-cricket-australia-ceo-sacked-earl-eddings/95fdd6ff-6932-4497-8889-814f5bc88c30
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