Cricket Australia Cuts Further 40 Jobs, Slashing Budget By $40 Million

Shortly after Cricket Australia CEO, Kevin Roberts was sacked from the organisation’s top spot, Cricket Australia has cut a further 40 jobs as part of a move to slash costs by $40 million.

Cricket Australia chairman, Earl Eddings, said the decision to cut more staff was “soul destroying”, with state and territory associations still bracing for their funding to be cut by up to 25 per cent.

“When you lose really good staff like today, through no fault of their own, it’s really gut wrenching,” Eddings said.

“Really, really soul destroying.

“This has been very, very tough and to say goodbye to those people is incredibly difficult.

“It’s a very traumatic time for a lot of people, very stressful.

“Three months ago, we were looking at more drastic cuts,” he said.

Eddings also suggested the combination of standing staff down and promising developments regarding the coming summer’s calendar, would ensure Cricket Australia could save more jobs and protect the core aspects of its business, “grassroots programs and high-performance programs”.

The job losses across Cricket Australia and all state and territory associations now total 200, with the state and territory associations staring at a 25 per cent cut to funding, despite Cricket NSW and Queensland Cricket continuing to push back against the proposal.

“We recognise that this is a difficult time for Cricket Australia employees, particularly for those staff members affected by these redundancies and their families,” Eddings said in a statement.

“However, our responsibility is clear: to navigate a path for cricket through this period of uncertainty and disruption to ensure we come out the other side sustainable in the short term and prosperous in the long term.

“Throughout COVID-19, the need to work closely with the cricket community and to move quickly as circumstances have changed has never been more important.

“With increasing clarity about the impact of COVID-19, we have managed the financial impact on our organisation, our people, our partners and players.

“There will still be painful decisions for some parts of our organisation, but we have worked hard to carefully develop plans to protect our investment in community cricket and high-performance cricket, while ensuring the game’s financial sustainability,” he said.