After a year warming the Cricket Australia CEO seat, Nick Hockley can finally call it his own. The Englishman took up an interim role after the exit of Kevin Roberts, who helmed CA for two years in the wake of the Newlands ball-tampering controversy, and has effectively been on trial throughout a tumultuous year that has been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
James Sutherland steered CA for seventeen years, stamping his authority and personality on the sport. Roberts knocked down the walls of Sutherland’s office but found himself out of the job with the renovation barely complete. Once Hockley settles in, there’s a hefty to-do list for the affable Englishman to tackle and, while some of the issues facing Australian cricket fall under the remit of the CA Board of Directors, Hockley’s leadership will undoubtedly have considerable influence over the coming months and years.
The Australian men’s teams
While Australia’s Women have had a record run in ODIs and hold the T20 World Cup and the Women’s Ashes, there have been modest returns for the men. Ten years on from the Argus report and the oft-repeated aim to be the number one side in all formats, the national side doesn’t top any of the rankings.
After drawing the 2019 Ashes in England, the Test team was in a strong position to make the World Test Championship Final. But a series loss at home to India - the second in three years - and the cancellation of the South Africa tour earlier this year amid pandemic concerns ensured Tim Paine’s men will watch from afar as India and New Zealand contest the inaugural title.
India’s success reflects the BCCI’s wealth and investment in the national men’s side but New Zealand is punching above its financial weight. Should Australia fail to win the Ashes on home soil later this year - it would be three out of four summers in which they have lost a home series - there will likely be serious recriminations.
The ICC trophy cupboard is hardly bursting with silverware. Australia has never won a T20 World Cup. The 2015 World Cup victory remains the only time Australia has appeared in any ICC final, including the Champions Trophy, since the 2010 loss to England in the World T20 Final.
Rightly or wrongly, the health of the game in Australia is often judged by the success of the national men’s teams and, fairly or unfairly, on-field success will be a reflection of Hockley’s decisions around structures and personnel.
Juggling schedules
The next few months provide immediate challenges for management. Australia head to the Caribbean in June to play three ODIs and five T20Is against West Indies before playing five T20Is in Bangladesh in August. Then things really get tight.
The BCCI wants to squeeze the rest of the suspended IPL in the UAE before the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in India but likely to move to the UAE in October and November. Several Australian players likely to make the national T20 side have lucrative deals with IPL franchises. Multi-format players such as David Warner and Pat Cummins will also be required for Ashes duties in December.
When you throw in quarantine complications and bubble fatigue, player management and welfare become major issues.
Delivering another summer
It was a minor miracle, and surely a big tick against Hockley’s name, that CA delivered a full summer of International and domestic cricket in such an uncertain environment. The unpredictability of outbreaks and subsequent state border closures required nimble thinking and endless contingency plans, not to mention delicate diplomacy with the BCCI.
The current lockdown in Melbourne and the slow vaccine rollout, with no tangible targets, are sobering reminders that next summer could bring more of the same.
Succession
While Aaron Finch has made no secret of his desire to lead Australia in the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, Tim Paine’s future as Test captain is less certain and may depend on Australia’s performance in the Ashes. Even fuzzier is the identity of Paine’s successor. While Steve Smith and Pat Cummins seem to be frontrunners, there are mitigating issues with both possibilities: in Steve Smith case there is the baggage of ‘sandpapergate’ and Pat Cummins' suitability as Australia’s most potent fast bowler must be considered.
Reported rumblings of players’ concerns over Justin Langer’s coaching style also abound. Again, much may depend on Australia’s success or failure over the summer. Ashes series often bookend a cycle, series at home draw the most intense scrutiny and mediocre performances can herald the sudden end to an international career.
There’s trouble brewing at the top, too. While the selection of CA Chair is one for the board, Hockley will be in the centre of a brewing political storm involving the game’s most powerful stakeholders. Current CA Chair, Earl Eddings, wants a second term but doesn’t have the support of NSW and, reportedly, Queensland.
Englishman Hockley comes to the CEO role refreshingly free from allegiances to any of the states. Moreover, he has so far done the job while based in Sydney, the first CEO ever to do so since David Richards became the first ACB administrator to hold the title. Whether Eddings, with whom Hockley has a good working relationship, retains the role or a new Chair is elected, Hockley will have to navigate the often fractious state politics that are never far from the centre of Australian cricket.
Global citizens
Australia men haven’t played an away series against a team other than England or India since the infamous 2018 South Africa tour. Bangladesh haven’t played a Test in Australia since 2003. While other countries have returned to Pakistan, there are no plans for Australia to follow suit.
CA was keen to jump into the so-called ‘Big Three’ with India and England, gaining a bigger slice of the international financial pie as a result, but since the triumvirate was wound back Australia has retained its reputation for favouring the richer countries and failing to play a bigger part in growing the international game.
Hockley’s previous roles with the ICC, including as Tournament Director for last year’s Women’s T20 World Cup, may strengthen a more global view. He has spoken numerous times about the need for Australia to be a good global citizen; he will need to overcome years of organisational self-interest to make that a reality.
Wheeling and dealing
Hockley will be at the heart of two major upcoming negotiations. The next Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Cricketers Association is due next year, while the current broadcast deals expire in 2023.
The last MOU negotiations were a turbulent and combative mess, publicly pitting players against the administration and leaving lasting resentment on both sides. Here, Hockley has the advantage of a fresh outlook and a good relationship with the new ACA CEO, Todd Greenberg. The pair have already held a joint press conference and have started informal discussions. When you consider it was unimaginable that either Sutherland or Roberts would so much as be in the same room as Greenberg’s predecessor, Alistair Nicholson, the fact that Hockley and Greenberg have met for a friendly coffee suggests the next negotiations will be far more amicable and cover more ground that the last brawl over revenue-sharing.
It hasn’t exactly been a chummy relationship between CA and cricket’s free-to-air rights holder, either. Seven West’s Managing Director and CEO, James Warburton, made clear his dissatisfaction with the pandemic-induced disruption to last summer’s schedule and demanded a hefty discount. Independent arbitration was required and resulted in CA paying a small fraction of the $70 million sought by Seven.
Further disruptions next summer could have serious ramifications on the next round of broadcast negotiations.
Culture
Under Paine, Finch and Langer, the men’s side have made significant strides in repairing the tarnished reputation of a culture that was brewing long before Cameron Bancroft shoved a piece of sandpaper down his jocks. But the reaction to some testy moments during the series against India demonstrated the fragility of the restoration work and the recent resurfacing of the Newlands affair, sparked by Bancroft’s interview in The Guardian, revealed a wound that may fester for years to come.
Both were a test of Hockley’s leadership and reaction to it was mixed. Hockley has familiarised himself with the multiple reviews into the team and corporate cultures that were conducted in the wake of Newlands and told journalists that, while he felt many of the recommendations had been implemented, there was still work to be done.
