Privatization the billion-dollar question at the Australian Cricket summit

A private capital injection for Australian Cricket will be near the top of the agenda when Cricket Australia, state and players Chiefs meet later this month, with a commercial stake in the Big Bash League alone said to be worth more than $1 billion.

The Australian Cricket Council, a body formed after the 2018 cultural review of Cricket Australia, links the governing body chair Lachlan Henderson with his state and players association counterparts, and last met in May.

One potential investor has told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald they could deliver a billion dollars tomorrow to Cricket Australia if the BBL was privatized.

But Henderson, fellow board directors and chief executive Nick Hockley are united in the belief that any move to sell off a portion of the games commercial operations in return for private capital cannot be considered until after signing the next broadcast rights deal in 2024.

Their view is that Australian Cricket is not in the distressed state of other sports that have sought private money in recent years, including rugby, basketball and soccer. On that basis, the Cricket Australia preference is to hasten slowly, if at all.

However, other powerful voices, including some at Cricket New South Wales and the Australian Cricketers Association, are eager to test the market sooner rather than later. Neil Maxwell, the NSW board director who also manages the national men’s Captain Pat Cummins, is an avowed advocate of the move.

John Knox, the Cricket NSW chair, is a partner and head of Australia and New Zealand for Ares SSG Group, a private equity and investment management corporation with diverse interests in a range of sports, including soccer, baseball, Formula 1 and rugby.

Numerous senior players such as Usman Khawaja are also in favor, largely because they see private investment as the only way to keep player remuneration competitive with burgeoning Twenty20 Leagues in South Africa and the UAE.

Senior Cricket sources told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that the most likely compromise will be to form a joint working group comprising Cricket Australia, states, players and independent representatives to explore private capitalization possibilities in parallel with rights negotiations.