Australian rugby staring into abyss as coronavirus shutdown takes toll

SYDNEY - More than 100 staff cleared their desks at Rugby Australia's shiny offices near Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday and Wednesday in a troubling portent of an uncertain future for the game in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.

Already cash-strapped after five years of only modest success on the field and ructions off it, the suspension of all professional sport to help contain the pandemic has come as a perfect storm for rugby union's governing body in Australia.

While other unions around the world have been forced to cut costs, and USA Rugby are making the tactical move of filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy, few face a future as bleak.

Twice world champions and World Cup finalists as recently as 2015, the Wallabies are undoubtedly one of the powers of the international game.

In response to the crisis, Rugby Australia Chief Executive Raelene Castle agreed to a 50% pay cut before announcing on Tuesday that 75% of RA staff would be laid off for three months with those remaining working shorter hours on reduced wages.

RA's 2019 accounts have yet to be signed off because of the uncertainty but Castle said in announcing the layoffs that they faced a "worst case scenario" of A$120 million ($73.54 million)losses in revenue, a devastating amount for a body of its size.

Former Wallaby Rod Kafer, now a television pundit, said on Wednesday the roots of the crisis predated the coronavirus pandemic and called for wholesale changes at the top.

"This concept for the rugby community that 'everything's okay, just trust us' when the CEO says we're staring down a A$120 million hole? How did the board allow the game to get into that position?" he told Fox Sports TV.

"We know rugby was sick a long time before the coronavirus came along. Rugby's been sick for years, people have been calling for change and it hasn't occurred. And yet, the same people who've taken us off the cliff are still in charge."

LEGAL BATTLE

This year was already going to be tough financially for RA due to the usual reductions of revenue following a World Cup year being compounded by the financial fallout from the lengthy battle over Israel Folau's sacking last May.

The decision to spurn the offer of an extended broadcast deal from long-term partners Fox Sports and take the rights to market has also left them potentially exposed when the current four-year, $285 million contract expires at the end of 2020.

Castle and her team have started negotiations over what are now inevitable player salary cuts with the Rugby Union Player's Association (RUPA) and their chief executive, Justin Harrison. "Yesterday, we commenced formal discussions with RUPA with a genuine desire to find a fair and reasonable solution on a short term pay deal with the players for the three-month period from now until June 30," Castle said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We believe the information we have shared, including information on future cash projections, provides the players with enough information to develop a position."

Former Wallabies lock Harrison earlier said Rugby Australia were being nowhere near as transparent as they should be about the extent of the crisis facing the game.

"Australia's professional rugby union players are still waiting on detailed financial information from Rugby Australia after talks in Sydney today, still not provided after three weeks of requests," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Although RA provided no assurances, RUPA looks forward to the opportunity to assess that information in the near future."

Kafer said he thought that even after halving her A$800,000 salary, Castle would still be earning more than 95% of players.

"Taking the game to the point of insolvency is what this management team and board have done," he added.

"It is time for drastic change, the rugby community ... has watched this train smash over the last few years and has called for change. Now's the time to demand it."

($1 = 1.6319 Australian dollars) (Additional reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Pritha Sarkar)

Reuters

Clarke breaks down giving heartfelt Hughes tribute

SYDNEY - Captain Michael Clarke gave a graphic illustration of the raw emotions of the Australia team when he broke down repeatedly while paying tribute to former team mate Phillip Hughes on Saturday.

Making no mention of next week's test match against India, Clarke battled to hold back tears as he read out a statement on behalf of the players at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where Hughes suffered his fatal injury on Tuesday.

Hughes, 25, died on Thursday as the result of a catastrophic injury he sustained when struck on the head by a ball during a domestic match, triggering a wave of mourning in Australia and around the world.

"Words cannot express the loss we feel as a team right now," Clarke said. "We are going to miss that cheeky grin and that twinkle in his eye. He epitomised what the baggy green was about and what it means to us all.

"The world lost one of its great blokes this week and we are all poorer for it."

Clarke, widely praised for the role he has played in comforting his friend and former team mate's family, said the players had requested that Cricket Australia retire Hughes's one-day international number, 64.

"They agreed. That means so much," he added. "His legacy of trying to improve each and every day will drive us for the rest of our lives.

"Our dressing room will never be the same. We loved him and always will. Rest in peace bruzzy."

Tributes continued to flood in from around the world for Hughes and indication of how deeply Hughes's death has affected his fellow professionals came in the United Arab Emirates, where Pakistan are hosting New Zealand in a test series.

The second test had been postponed for a day after Hughes died and there was no celebration of wickets or centuries when it resumed on Friday.

"The game was irrelevant at that stage, that was just a natural reaction by a group of people whose mind was elsewhere," New Zealand coach Mike Hesson told reporters in Sharjah.

"We didn't bowl any bouncers and that was to show respect."

HONOURING HUGHES

Back in Australia, Hughes was not forgotten as Saturday morning cricket was played across the country in blazing sunshine as it has been for more than a century.

Cricket Australia has encouraged teams at all levels to remember Hughes and both the score he had accumulated when the fatal blow struck him, 63 not out, and his test number, 408, were in evidence on pitches around the country.

At a match between Sydney Boys and Shore schools in Centennial Park, just a stone's throw from the SCG, a row of bats topped with cricket caps were lined up beside the pitch in tribute.

Cricket at the elite level has yet to resume with senior club matches cancelled in Sydney and Adelaide, where Hughes played his state cricket for South Australia for the last couple of years.

Hughes is to be honoured with a state memorial service at the SCG sometime next week and his funeral service is expected to take place in Macksville, New South Wales, where he grew up the son of a banana and beef farmer.

The fate of the first of four tests against India, which is scheduled to start in Brisbane on Thursday, remains in the balance.

Cricket Australia has suggested the players will ultimately make the decision and Clarke's demeanour on Saturday indicated that the match may come too early for many of them.

Clarke's predecessor as captain, Ricky Ponting, also paid tribute to Hughes in a newspaper column on Saturday and wrote that the test should probably not go ahead.

"It's one thing to say Phillip Hughes would have wanted the four-test series against India to start as scheduled," he wrote in The Australian.

"It's another for 11 men to take the field at the Gabba a week after their close friend died.

"It's been such a tragic week for the Hughes family and the cricket community and I can't imagine how anybody can be expected to play test cricket on Thursday. In fact I don't think it would be right.

"Even if the boys think they can play it would be a miracle if they find the right frame of mind needed for five days of cricket."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com