Cricket Australia (CA) has signalled an awkward twelve-month period ahead, confirming an AUD 11.3 million deficit but insisting a bumper 2025-26 led by an Ashes summer will restore the books. The announcement came at Thursday’s annual general meeting in Melbourne, where chief executive Todd Greenberg and chair Mike Baird fielded pointed questions from state delegates.
Opening the books
CA had long projected a loss for 2024-25, even with India’s Border-Gavaskar visit on the calendar. A men’s white-ball tour by India next summer, followed by the home Ashes, is expected to swing the organisation back into the black. Board members privately talk of one of the most profitable cycles in recent memory.
Nonetheless, cost-cutting has already landed. Staff redundancies, trimmed high-performance pathways and an end to funding for national indoor-cricket teams have unsettled several states. Cricket Victoria chair Ross Hepburn voiced concern at the meeting, arguing community programmes should not carry the burden.
Players first – or peril
Greenberg maintains the toughest calls stem from a need to keep Australia’s elite male players from committing full-time to the expanding franchise circuit.
“It’s a big part of our decisions,” he told reporters. “There’s no secret that every sports league in the world has one significant thing in common, they have the best players playing in those leagues. And so the moment we take for granted that our Australian players will play in our leagues or play for their teams is at our peril.
“We can’t stand still. We’ve got to keep an eye on what’s happening. Of course, we want to protect everything that’s sacrosanct about what’s been great about Australian cricket over generations, but we’ve got to have an eye to the future.
“And we’re not talking about in six months or 12 months. We’re talking about long-term generational change, and it’s incumbent on us as leaders of the sport to make sure we explore all of those things, and that will get uncomfortable for people, and it will challenge people.”
Those remarks underscore a wider concern: private T20 leagues can already match or exceed the annual retainer for an Australian central contract. Were a leading player to sign exclusively with a franchise, national scheduling and public interest would feel the impact quickly.
Indoor game left exposed
Yet the optics are tricky. Cutting backing for a popular indoor-cricket scene while ring-fencing elite wages has drawn criticism, particularly from volunteer-driven grassroots clubs. Greenberg conceded the pain but argues the alternatives are limited.
“Of course, we would love to fund everyone and everything, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure we put our money in the right places at the right times,” he said. “We’ll always be looking to help community groups or indoor cricket and whatever other types of formats we can but at the end of the day, we can’t give out what we don’t have.”
The former Australian Cricketers’ Association boss helped broker the 2023 collective agreement that runs until 2028, so he understands the pay model from both sides of the table. Index-linked increases mean the top bracket will continue to rise, even if overall revenue growth stalls.
Private investment on the horizon
One lever still available is outside capital. CA executives have spent much of the past year sounding out private-equity interest in the Big Bash League. Any sale of equity would require state approval and, based on AGM murmurs, that debate is just warming up. Administrators in Victoria and Western Australia, in particular, want conditions guaranteeing returns for local development work.
Looking ahead
For the moment, CA must juggle immediate austerity with the promise of a lucrative Ashes year. The board’s forecast assumes ticket and broadcast revenue holds firm, and that Australia’s leading names remain committed to the Baggy Green. In a landscape where pay scales are increasingly global, that assumption could prove decisive.
Greenberg accepts he may have to make more uncomfortable choices before the tide turns. The balance between paying stars, funding pathways and keeping grassroots volunteers onside looks set to define his tenure—and, by extension, the next generation of Australian cricket.
