Cricket squeezed by T20 and Grassroots

“Australian Cricket is working together to understand potential global investment opportunities as we continue to grow and strengthen the game and ensure its long-term prosperity,” said a spokesman for Cricket Australia. “We speak to many relevant stakeholders with expertise, including investment banks, financial sponsors, trading partners and major sports groups.”

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The Flat Cricket Australia broadcast deal with Fox Sports and Channel Seven for $1.5 billion over seven years has cricket officials wondering how to ensure Big Bash’s salary cap gets the raise it needs to keep up with the spread to compete in T20 competitions cashed in by Indian businessmen.

This is part of negotiations between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association for the next memorandum of understanding, which is due to be finalized over the course of the next month or so.

Germon’s interest in expanding revenue streams was sparked when New Zealand Rugby sold 6 per cent of its commercial operations to Silver Lake Capital for US$200 million. This allowed the All Blacks to compete with the contracts offered by Japanese and English club rugby and allowed for greater grassroots investment.

“Part of my overseas trip over the last year was to meet with a number of private equity firms to improve my understanding of why they invest in sport and what type of sport they invest in and what they get from cricket -Keep landscape? I saw the cricket landscape change very quickly.”