New South Wales calls for Cricket Australia to pause BBL privatisation push

New South Wales and Queensland have told Cricket Australia that they are not prepared to approve the privatisation of the BBL, leaving the governing body with a tricky decision as to whether they should proceed without unanimous backing of all the states or not.

CA had set a deadline of Wednesday for states to respond to whether they would support proceeding with moving to the next step of privatisation, which involves getting official valuations for the clubs. It has previously been estimated that full privatisation of the BBL could bring in AU$600-800 million.

Queensland held a board meeting on Tuesday night and ESPNcricinfo understands that they will ask CA for clarification on a number of points before firming up their final decision. NSW's stance remains more firmly against the current privatisation model and is consistent with their views of recent weeks, although CEO Lee Germon reiterated on Wednesday they are committed to growing the BBL.

"Our position is that we still do not believe that the sale of the BBL clubs is the right approach here," Germon told reporters in Sydney. "What I would like to reiterate is that we are in fierce agreement with Cricket Australia that we need to invest in the BBL, that we need to grow the BBL, we need to have our best players play in the BBL and in a window that allows that.

"We believe there's another way of doing that through some self-funding mechanisms and over the last three to four weeks, we've been able to work on that alternative strategy. We shared that with Cricket Australia and the other states yesterday, so we would hope that that now forms a discussion in terms of an alternative strategy."

Todd Greenberg, the CA CEO, said the board was ready to work to address any concerns. "We are receiving responses from States to our proposal on private investment in BBL clubs and remain open to discussing any questions or concerns about this model," Greenberg said in a statement provided to ESPNcricinfo. "This process remains respectful and collaborative and with the best interests of Australian Cricket the key consideration of all involved."

Germon urged CA to pause the current push towards privatisation or at the very least run concurrent assessments of alternative models. NSW believes there is money to be made in ticketing, sponsorship and wagering and betting - the latter having the potential to be controversial, particularly in light of the Australian government's recent announcements around gambling reforms.

"Some will be more palatable than others, some will be more achievable than others, but we believe that they need to be looked at in terms of providing an opportunity to fund our way through this, to develop the BBL without going straight to selling our clubs," Germon said.

"Our biggest fear is external investment coming into a cricket ecosystem, which is working very effectively and very well now, in terms of adding more voices to how our cricket is run and how our players are produced.

"So we see some risks here, which Cricket Australia share, by the way, I think we all understand this, that one of the risks in bringing that is that you suddenly open up the involvement of external investors who will not have aligned goals with the states or Cricket Australia in terms of how they want the game to be run."

An added element to NSW's stance is that it puts them directly opposed to Mike Baird, the CA chair, who is strongly in favour of privatisation and is also NSW's nomination to the CA board. Meanwhile, NSW chair John Knox is a partner and local head of Ares Management, which has a 49% stake in Trent Rockets in the Hundred and was appointed to the board of the franchise.

When CA and the states met last month, which resulted in this latest deadline, it emerged that there was an option to move forward with privatisation without agreement from all the states, although details on how that would work were thin.

"I think a mixed model would add complication to a cricket ecosystem, as I think external ownership would add complication to the cricket ecosystem as well," Germon said. "And just bearing in mind the BBL, it's not just a commercial product. It's a product that has its own place and a really important place in our cricket family and ecosystem."

Meanwhile, Germon indicated that there would be potential for Sydney Thunder to be one of the teams involved if the BBL took the opening game next season to Chennai. Thunder initially signed R Ashwin for last season before he was ruled out through injury.

"I think 50% of our Sydney Thunder fans also follow Chennai Super Kings. So that would give you an indication as to how we might think about that," Germon said. "I think it's a wonderful opportunity, a chance to do it, but we're also aware that it needs to stack up in a number of areas, around not only commercial but around fan engagement. Would it mean we take a game away from here? We don't know, but we certainly applaud Cricket Australia and their vision to do that."

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