



NSW seeking cash boost to fight AFL's western push

A NEW $12 million national strategic fighting fund looms as the key in Cricket NSW's attempts to combat the Australian rules insurgency in the country's fastest growing area, western Sydney.

The extra cash pool, tipped to be voted on when Cricket Australia's new nine-member board meets for the first time in a fortnight, is considered a way for the major states to finally be granted a more proportionate slice of the broadcast rights revenue pie.

Under the national financial distribution model, all associations receive an equal 1/6 share of CA revenue directed towards states, regardless of the disparity in population and participation numbers between the likes of NSW and smaller outposts such as Western Australia and Tasmania.

That structure is set for a dramatic overhaul, the latest shake-up in cricket's most significant revolution in governance in 108 years.

While a premise of the shift to an increasingly independent board is that no state should be worse off financially, the new strategic fund is being pushed as a way for extra CA revenue to be dished out on a needs basis. The Herald understands the annual pot of money in the fund will start at between $8 million and $12 million, with those details set to be finalised when the board sits down for its meeting the day after the CA annual general meeting in Melbourne on October 25.

Cricket NSW, struggling to counter the influx of AFL into its backyard, will be eager for a major share to direct straight into the fight for western Sydney. As it stands, it is losing the battle, and there are fears that the dearth of resources at its disposal is crippling the development of the game there. For instance, at Blacktown International Sports Park, a facility developed in conjunction with Blacktown City Council, the AFL and the NSW government, Cricket NSW has five full-time development officers. The AFL has 15.

NSW, with a population of about 7 million and 200,000 participants in cricket, has long argued that the CA financial distribution model is unfair, handing a state such as Tasmania, with a population of about 500,000 and about 20,000 cricketers, an identical share of revenue. The counterclaim by the smaller states is that states such as NSW and Victoria have always received preferential treatment in terms of scheduling, allowing them to cash in on events such as the Boxing Day Test and, in the case of NSW this summer, the Australia Day Twenty20 at ANZ Stadium.

However, gate receipts are now dwarfed by the revenue stream created by CA's rich broadcast arrangements in India, Europe and at home. CA's recently announced four-year contract with British broadcaster Sky Sports was of a significantly increased value to the previous one, and with free-to-air networks eyeing Fox Sports' T20 Big Bash League and Channel Nine facing genuine competition from Channel Seven to retain the domestic cricket rights - worth $300 million and expected to rise - the major states will want a piece of the action.

Exaclty how the revenue will be divided will be determined when the six CA directors - one from each state association - take their place in the boardroom, with the three nominated independents: former Ericsson chief executive Jacquie Hey, Rio Tinto Australia boss David Peever and Kevin Roberts, the former NSW batsman now retail businessman.

That trio must be formally voted in by a two-thirds majority at the annual meeting later this month but, with that approval considered a fait accompli, their first task, on the next day, will be to appease the big states, such as NSW, crying out for help.

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