Tech titan withdraws his $90 million offer for Big Bash licence

3 weeks ago 9

Tech titan and ACT Cricket chair Greg Boorer made a $90 million “good faith” offer to Cricket Australia for a Big Bash League licence based in Canberra, but withdrew it after what he called “unnecessary and unacceptable” treatment at a meeting with state and territory chairs last October.

As CA and the states near the end-of-season deadline set by chief executive Todd Greenberg and chair Mike Baird for a decision on whether to sell stakes in the BBL clubs to private investors, this masthead can reveal Boorer sent a strongly worded letter to the chairs of the six states and two territories in November.

Greg Boorer is the founder of CDC Data Centres

CA is yet to formally open the doors to either expansion of the league or private investment, meaning the offer was somewhat theoretical.

But among many points raised, Boorer – the founder of the $17 billion CDC Data Centres – questioned the wisdom of ignoring locally based prospective investors while pursuing overseas buyers, particularly Indian Premier League team owners.

“We are genuinely contemplating inviting foreign investment, including IPL owners capital, and influence into Australian cricket,” Boorer wrote in a letter addressed to CA chair Mike Baird and all state and territory chairs, dated November 26 and seen by this masthead.

“Some members of Australian cricket appear to prefer the idea of accepting foreign capital and the dilution of control and influence in our game, instead of even contemplating creative ways of taking money off another member of the Australian cricket family that is completely aligned with the goals and culture of Australian cricket.”

The current instability around cricket in South Asia – with Pakistan refusing to play a pool game against India at the looming Twenty20 World Cup – is also a source of some concern within Australian cricket.

State association chiefs are also watching the evolution of the Hundred competition in the UK, which sold a combination of minority and majority stakes in all eight teams last year.

Boorer’s offer to buy a BBL licence for Canberra was described in the letter as being made “in good faith” and to “help aid CA’s balance sheet repair” and develop the BBL while also protecting annual grants to state associations, and by extension grassroots funding.

CA has run a series of budget deficits – after making distributions to the states – in the governing body’s annual reports since 2022, raising questions about the financial health of the game and whether administrators are living beyond their means.

Cricket NSW chairman John Knox at the SCG.

Without an injection of additional capital before the next major broadcast rights deal is struck in 2031, CA and the states may be forced to look at more austerity measures after making numerous budget and job cuts in 2025.

Following the treatment of Boorer and ACT Cricket chief executive Olivia Thornton in October, and given there appeared to be little appetite for adding a BBL club in Canberra, the offer was withdrawn.

At the meeting, which took place after the CA annual meeting on October 30, Boorer was asked by Cricket NSW chair John Knox to leave the room when the matter of BBL club sales was to be discussed. This took place after the state and territory chairs had already had a “pre-meeting” at which it was agreed how much of the meeting Boorer would be allowed to attend.

Knox’s issue with Boorer was to ask whether he was in the room as the chair of ACT Cricket or as a potential investor. In addition to serving as chair of Cricket NSW, Knox is the head of Australian operations for the investment firm Ares Management, which recently bought a stake in the Trent Rockets in the Hundred.

CNSW and ACT Cricket have had a tetchy relationship in recent times, as Boorer and Thornton seek to grow cricket in the territory, which alongside the Northern Territory is not a full member of CA. Boorer has openly questioned why that is the case, arguing that the national game could only grow through better exposure for the Canberra market.

CNSW, by contrast, argues that Cricket ACT is still a constitutional member of the state association and therefore not entitled to act independently. Cricket ACT has obtained legal advice to the contrary.

Boorer is travelling on business to the United States and was unavailable for comment. CA and Cricket NSW were contacted for comment.

Greenberg, Baird and CA had hoped for consensus among the states by the end of the home season, after an independent Boston Consulting Group report recommended the sale of stakes in BBL clubs.

There are no indications of agreement being reached before the end of the season, with Greenberg and his state association equivalents currently mired in debates over how to divide up prospective funds.

Test stars Steve Smith and Mitch Starc, returning from Ashes duty for the final stages of the most recent BBL, helped ensure the tournament was a success.

Short of the BCCI reversing a cast-iron policy of not allowing contracted Indian players to participate, only the likes of Travis Head and Pat Cummins were missing from the mix.

Proponents of a partial sale of BBL clubs have expressed concerns about the prospect of top players ultimately deciding to quit Australian cricket and chase franchise cash full-time.

Loose plans for the sale of stakes in BBL clubs set down 2027-28 as the first summer in which the league would have private investors involved: partly because 2026-27 is a horrendous one for the Australian domestic calendar, with five Tests due to take place in India in January and February.

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