Cricket Australia fears losing 'hundreds of millions' if India's tour Down Under gets affected by COVID-19

Cricket Australia (CA) is looking at all possible option in a bid to make sure India’s tour to Australia, scheduled to be played from November 2020 to January 2021, goes ahead as planned. CA chief executive Kevin Roberts has predicted losses to the tune of “hundreds of millions of dollars” if Virat Kohli-led Team India can’t tour Down Under.

Roberts further said an additional Test in the already scheduled four-match Test series, is an option with the entire rubber being played in one city at a stadium without any spectators. He further said that revenue from an ICC event is “very important” for all other counterparts around the cricket world and hence they will do “everything possible to stage and host the T20 World Cup”.

“We might not generate financial returns from that event that are as significant as the international cricket season (in Australia),” Roberts told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.

“But what we do know is that the bigger returns from the broadcast rights around the event that are generated by the ICC are very important to all of our counterparts around the cricket world.

“So it’s incumbent on us to do everything possible to stage and host the T20 World Cup.”

CA has already stood down the majority of its staff and warned players of pay cuts after suffering $20 million hit due to COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you contemplate the prospect of the international season, in particular, being affected, we have an issue of hundreds of millions of dollars on our hands,” Roberts said.

“So it’s very important that ... we do everything possible to stage the season.”

“Whether or not there’s people at the venue or not ... we will explore all viable options,” Roberts said.

“Fortunately we have a little bit of time to work through the different scenarios with the India series. But we’re not ruling out any possibility for that at this point in time.”

Roberts further defended CA’s stance on standing down the majority of its staff on around 20 per cent of their usual pay for the rest of the financial year. Interestingly, CA had signed a broadcast deal worth $1.2 billion in 2018.

“On one level, cricket is fortunate in terms of the time of year when the coronavirus situation hit,” Roberts said while adding, “on another level, cricket is unfortunate in that it has hit us at the lowest point of our four-year cash cycle.”

“We were completely on track with our plan for the year until coronavirus hit,” Roberts said.

“The unfortunate reality of that is we’re estimating that we have taken a $20m impact thus far.

“And we have to anticipate, given the unknown and fast-moving nature of this situation, that there will be more risks than that $20m.”