Can you square those two things?

Yeah, I, I can.

I, I think it's the equivalent to, uh, getting to the end of December if you're a retailer and saying, "Well, we had an amazing, uh, December.

Uh, for some reason we sold a lot of, lot of items for Christmas," so every month will be like that.

And I-I think Peter Lawler might have talked about it, uh, on this podcast, that there is a lot of cricket that we run that doesn't actually make money.

So m-men's test cricket against India and England makes money, the Big Bash makes money, but just about every other format of cricket we play loses money.

Sheffield Shield, WNCL, Domestic One-Dayers, WBBL, our, our under 19s, the National Inclusion Championships, the National Indigenous Championships, all of those things cost money.

Mm.

But just going back on what's happened sort of since you had that chat with Gerard, would have you done anything differently? Now you've sort of, you've seen what's unfolded in the last two weeks since it became public.

I think there's a great unseen part of this story that, um, People just don't realise how difficult it's been to work at Cricket Victoria.

Basically, we've had two groups of staff, both the stars and renegades, who haven't known whether we're selling, whether we're not selling, what's happening.

Do I start working on membership? Do I start working on all of the graphic design for next year or do I wait? And so...

That was getting more and more challenging for our staff.

It was getting more and more challenging for our sponsors.

So, you know, are you playing as the Renegades? Are you going to own the Renegades next year? All of those questions.

But it will only be for one more year, though.

But just going back on what's happened sort of since you had that chat with Gerard, have you done anything differently? Now you've seen what's unfolded in the last two weeks since it became public?

I think there's a great unseen part of this story that – People just don't realise how difficult it's been to work at Cricket Victoria.

Basically, we've had two groups of staff, both the stars and renegades, who haven't known whether we're selling, whether we're not selling, what's happening.

Do I start working on membership? Do I start working on all of the graphic design for next year or do I wait? And so...

That was getting more and more challenging for our staff.

It was getting more and more challenging for our sponsors.

So, you know, are you playing as a renegades? Are you going to own the renegades next year? All of those, those questions.

But it will only be for one more year though.

Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins on the decision to abolish the Stars and Renegades.

We've thought about this very deeply in the context of BBL's sale, which has been widely reported over the last few months.

Cricket Victoria has decided to sell 100% of one of the teams.

We're cognizant of the fact that when that team is sold, their name is likely to be changed.

So if we use the Renegades as an example, the Renegades would change their name to another team.

We were concerned that the Renegades fans in this instance then may not support the new team, but then also because they'd spent the last 15 years hating the Stars, wouldn't support the Stars.

So what we felt would be most appropriate is to go back to where we were when the Big Bash first started, which is that we had a Victorian team, a team that played in the blue and white and represent all the Victorians.

And Cummins made the case for privatisation in the BBL.

Do you understand the risk in that?

Yes, I do.

So I think there's two things.

We had one game, I think, with the old Big Bash when we were playing as Victoria where we had 80,000 to the MCG.

So I think it's possible to achieve big crowds without it being a derby.

But the other point to impress is that there will be another Melbourne team.

So there is still going to be a derby.

Why is this a desirable decision to make now that you have committed yourself to it? Could you make that case publicly for us?

Do you understand the risk in that?

Yes, I do.

So I think there's two things.

We had one game, I think, with the old Big Bash when we were playing as Victoria where we had 80,000 to the MCG.

So I think it's possible to achieve big crowds without it being a derby.

But the other point to impress is that there will be another Melbourne team.

So there is still going to be a derby.

Why is this a desirable decision to make now that you have committed yourself to it? Could you make that case publicly for us?

Why is this a desirable decision to make now that you have committed yourself to it? Could you make that case publicly for us?

I think it's twofold.

From Cricket Victoria's perspective, it's been well publicised the challenges that Cricket Australia have had financially.

A lot of that is debt that they incurred during COVID that's been hard to unwind through the vagaries of the international calendar.

So we believe that this reset is required in order to ensure that Australian cricket is on strong financial footing.

If we don't do that, then we suffer or face the prospect of quite significant funding cuts, which then endangers the things that we regard as being important.

So that's specifically being community cricket, but also our high performance program.

If you secure $180 million and north thereof Australian, how transformative for Victorian cricket and how prescriptive is your plan to make sure that it does transform cricket here for generations to come and not just a one-off cash grab?

Yeah, that's going to be really important and I think it's important for listeners to understand that when we have funding cut, which we will as part of balancing the books, we'll need to supplement the cuts with the proceeds that are generated out of investing that money.

So this is not going to be a case that we have an inflow of money and then every cricket club across Victoria has gold taps in their bathroom.

I think that would be an irresponsible management of that money.

What's important is that we have... returns that come in every year that we then invest into Victorian cricket, whether that's through facilities, whether that's through participation, whether that's through high performance.

But ultimately, that's the most important thing.

The Big Bash is important and we love it, we love watching it, but what really matters in cricket is the game that everyone plays on the weekend.

Do you accept at the moment that if we polled the public, I feel like you would get a span of attitudes towards privatisation that went between sceptical, suspicious and hostile?

And what is the message to them, given that the timelines are unclear here?

Yeah, so presently, although it's a merger of brands, the lists stay as they are.

So if you are contracted to the Renegades, you stay with that group.

If you are contracted to the Stars, you stay with that group.

um we're obviously clear on this the stars ownership who's going to be running that we won't be clear on specifically who owns the the renegades if we use that as the renegades group we won't be clear on who that is for a few months we've still got a few gateways we've got to get through and sail with cricket australia and the players association um so there's a little bit more uncertainty there but we'll be working pretty hard to ensure that there's you know there's a clear plan and One of the reasons why it was really important to make this decision now is so that we can get on and plan.

It's been very hard over the last three or four months being stuck in a holding pattern, not knowing whether we're going forward or backwards.

It's been very hard on our staff.

So just to understand, players who are contracted to the Renegades will be sold to the new entity?

Can you explain to them why their teams will soon be abolished?

Yes, I can.

Uh, we've thought about this very deeply, um, in the context of BBL sale, which has been widely reported over the last few months.

Cricket Victoria has decided to sell 100% of one of the teams.

We're cognizant of the fact that when that team is sold, that their, their name is likely to be changed.

So if we use the Renegades as an example, the Renegades would, would change their name to another team.

We were concerned that the Renegades fans in this instance then may not support the new team, but then also because they'd spent the last 15 years hating the Stars, wouldn't support the Stars.

Do, do you understand the risk in that?

Do you understand the risk in that?

Yes, I do.

So I think there's two things.

We had one game, I think, with the old Big Bash when we were playing as Victoria where we had 80,000 to the MCG.

So I think it's possible to achieve big crowds without it being a derby.

But the other point to impress is that there will be another Melbourne team.

So there is still going to be a derby.

Why is this a desirable decision to make now that you have committed yourself to it? Could you make that case publicly for us?