Cricket Australia chief says furloughed staff could work at supermarkets

Kevin Roberts says he has written to supermarket giant Woolworths

The Gabba in Brisbane. Australian cricket is facing potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. Getty Images

Staff furloughed by Cricket Australia during the coronavirus shutdown could work at supermarkets as part of the board's efforts to find alternative employment for them, Chief Executive Kevin Roberts said on Wednesday.

Roberts told Australian radio he had written to supermarket giant Woolworths to find jobs for some of the nearly 80 per cent of staff that have been furloughed on 20 per cent pay until July 30.

"I wrote to Brad Banducci, the CEO of Woolworths, given that Woolworths is among organisations that need more staff at the moment," Roberts told SEN Radio.

"Our people and culture team are also working with other organisations who are in the habit of placing people in organisations and industries that have a temporary need for more people.

"So we're doing those things proactively and people are at the centre of everything we do."

CA's cutbacks, which will save Australian $3 million (Dh7m), have been criticised by media pundits given that the board has some $36 million in stock market investments and had more than $90 million in reserves at the end of March.

Executives at CA remain employed on 80% of their salaries.

Roberts had earlier defended the measures and said CA faced the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue if the shutdown precludes Australia from hosting the Twenty20 World Cup in October and India in a lucrative Test series during the home summer.

CA has asked its state member associations to take reduced annual grants and is in discussions with the players union about potential pay cuts.

Local media have reported resistance from the states, who nominate six of the nine directors to CA's executive board.

Roberts said on Wednesday he had enough support to drive the cuts through.

"The reality is that the vast majority of our people, our members, our stakeholders, are very comfortable with how we're working through this," he said.