Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird is in a rush to nominate Nick Hockley’s successor, with the outgoing chief executive’s March trip remaining a versatile week.
Hockley headed into his final AGM as head of the game on Thursday, as Cricket Australia posted a better-than-expected loss of A$31.9 million for the monetary day.
Players’ union boss and former NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg remains the favorite for the job, with the AAP generation well aware of the interest from other CA executives.
Hockley had marked a trip in March when he announced his decision to move on, but be wary of staying beyond that if no other option is available.
“The process is underway,” Baird said. “It is not surprising that there is a lot of interest in the position. We will approach it thoughtfully as a board, there is no rush.”
“We need to make sure we have the right person for the next phase. Nick is resting here and has a lot to do. We hope this is the case to stay on schedule, but we are very calm.”
CA’s annual loss came in what was always expected to be a down year for the organisation, with neither England nor India touring last summer.
The deficit was also higher than in the 2022-23 season, as that year’s finances were bolstered by the hosting of the Men’s T20 World Cup.
The annual result left the sport’s cash reserves at $25.7 million amid estimates that the Covid pandemic left the sport with a $100 million hit.
“It is expected that at the end of those two years we will be able to have reserves worth $70 million,” Baird said. “It’s clearly a steep increase relative to where we are… we’re very optimistic about both of them so [summers] and it is reflected in the forecast.”
Hockley insisted steps had been taken to make CA’s budget more resilient to summers without India or England, through new content, investment, profitability measures and increased digital assets.
Meanwhile, CA trustees Lachlan Henderson, Greg Rowell and Clea Smith were re-elected at Thursday’s meeting. Fellow director Paul Green announced that he would soon become ill.
