Malcolm Speed seeks clarification from CA CEO Kevin Roberts over financial crisis

Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Kevin Roberts has failed to clarify the board’s complicated final matters, feels former International Cricket Council chief executive officer Malcolm Speed. The board which is under financial stress believed due to the COVID-19 pandemic has already put 80 per cent of its staff on 20 per cent salary till the end of June while keeping a handful including the executives on 80 per cent pay.



The decision saved Australian dollars three million, a fact which was severely slammed by critics at a time when CA had some Australian dollars 90 million in reserves at the end of March, including Australian dollars 36 million in stock investments.



Speed, who has served as CA chief executive, gave some insights about the board has invested Australian dollars 22 million in 2012, which got doubled to around Australian dollars 45 million earlier this year before slipping to Australian dollars 36 million due to the coronavirus shock.



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“I think that’s been messy,” Speed was quoted as saying to SEN Radio. “I saw an article saying cricket has lost millions of dollars on the stock market. Well, before it lost millions on the stock market it made millions of dollars on the stock market and it lost part of its profits, but it hasn’t lost anything yet because it hasn’t sold. That was an issue.



“I don’t think cricket’s financial issues have been explained very well, they’re quite complicated, and I think Kevin Roberts has stumbled through that and tried to clarify the issue, but it’s very difficult to follow,” Speed, who was a part of CA between 1997 and 2001, added.



The 71-year-old, who had served as an ICC CEO from 2001 to 2008, feels Roberts has a lot of explaining to do. “There have been lots of surprises, there seemed to be surprised by the staff at CA that they were stood down, so they didn’t see that one coming. So I think there’s still some explaining to be done there,” he said. “I’d be very surprised if Kevin lost his job as a result of this, but then again I’ve been surprised by a couple of the other things that have happened.”



The Australian board is looking at staggering Australian dollars 300 million loss if the India Tour in October doesn’t go ahead. There is also the T20 World cup which Australia is scheduled to host in October-November. “Increasingly as we move through this COVID-19 situation that seems increasingly unlikely that’s going to be able to happen,” Speed said.