MELBOURNE, 13 October 2022: Cricket Australia (CA) has posted a deficit of $ 5.1 million for the year ended 30 June 2022 with significant factors including the costs of staging cricket throughout the pandemic and a challenging UK media rights market impacting this result, says its Annual Report for 2021/2022 released today.
A year-on-year reduction in total revenue of $14.3 million to $391 million was driven by a reduction in international media rights, partly offset by increased match revenues due to the popularity of the Ashes and improved Covid conditions. Meanwhile, CA’s funding to States and Territory Associations increased by $9.5 million to $112.7 million, the report says.
A few points from the Report:
– Australian Cricket devised its new five-year strategy Where the Game Grows including four key pillars for the game’s future prosperity – Brilliant Experiences, Inspirational Players and Teams, Participation Growth and Sustainable Future.
– The Australian men’s team won the home Ashes series 4-0, won the ICC T20 World Cup and toured Pakistan for the first time in almost 24 years, as well as fulfilling its commitment to tour Sri Lanka at a time of significant economic hardship in that country.
– The Australian women’s team won the ICC Women’s World Cup, the multi-format home Ashes series and was ranked No.1 in ODI and T20I cricket.
– KFC BBL11 was the most watched sports league in Australia on a per-game linear TV basis with 506,000 viewers, while every game of the Weber WBBL07 season was televised making it the most watched WBBL ever.
– Despite COVID-19, participation and retention rates in community cricket remained robust with total registered participation increasing by 11% to 598,931. The growth of women and girls cricket continued with registered female participation increasing by 12,000 to 71,300.
– CA completed a record rights agreement with Disney Star to televise international cricket and the W/BBL in India and other regions, emphasising the enduring global value of the summer of Australian cricket.
– The new ICC Future Tours Program was released including a five-Test home series against India putting the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on the same standing as the Ashes and multi-format women’s series against India and South Africa as well as England.
Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia CEO, said, ” “While cricket suffered some financial headwinds with added biosecurity costs and reduced match revenue, our partnerships with the players, broadcasters, commercial and government partners again demonstrated what can be achieved when we work together and we believe a great platform has been set for future collaboration.”
The report can be accessed HERE.
