Despite hosting T20 World Cup Cricket Australia records $16.9 million loss in last financial year

While hosting the Twenty20 World Cup last year generated a profit of more than $40 million for Cricket Australia, the body has today advised that it recorded a $16.9 million loss in the 2022/23 financial year.

Cricket Australia said the loss was driven by an “expected low point in the revenue cycle” given it was a non-Ashes year, although the game set new attendance records last summer.

Indicating that the body is still facing financial challenges, Cricket Australia Chair, Mike Baird today advised “cricket has reached an important moment with the continued emergence of franchise cricket creating both significant challenges and enormous opportunities as interest in our sport grows.”

This comes as a result of increasingly full international calendar challenging Cricket Australia’s influence in the game with domestic T20 competitions in India, North America, the Middle East and Africa, challenging Cricket Australia’s influence in the game.

The International Olympic Committee has also announced that cricket would become an Olympic sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Baird noted “as a global leader, we believe Cricket Australia is well placed to play a strong role in shaping the future of cricket including fulfilling our commitment to the primacy of Test cricket and maximising the benefits of our status as an Olympic sport to broaden the game’s horizons.”

The Cricket Australia annual report said 2.4 million people attended cricket matches in Australia over the year to June, setting a new record. The men’s Twenty20 World Cup tournament - won by England in the final at the MCG last November - helped increase Cricket Australia revenue by 9% to $427 million.

The overall profit of the tournament was listed at $42.5 million, which the annual report stated, “helped offset the reduction in media rights and match income in a non-Ashes year, an increase in player payments strategic investment investment in the BBL and higher travel costs post-Covid-19.”

The $16.9 million loss is the third-highest in the past decade, trailing 2016/17’s $52 million and $43 million in 2019/20.

Cricket Australia Chief Executive, Nick Hockley, said it was a landmark year “during which we secured the foundations of the game and put cricket in a position to seize on the enormous opportunities ahead”.

The broadcast deal with Foxtel and Channel Seven signed this year is worth $1.5 billion over seven years, and another agreement with Disney Star beams Australian cricket into India.

A new five-year deal with players was struck in April that gives professional women a share in $133 million, an increase from $80 million in the previous agreement.

Hockley said it “caters for changing dynamics in the global game also provides confidence and certainty across Australian cricket”.

Participation rose from 599,000 to 628,000 in the past year, though there was a small decrease in children 11 years old and younger playing junior cricket, with the report noting this was “largely the result of the closure of entry-level programs during Covid - emphasises our challenge to increase the number of kids playing cricket.”

Last year (2021/22) saw Cricket Australia record a $5.1 million loss.