MELBOURNE: Nick Hockley has been confirmed as Cricket Australia (CA)’s permanent Chief Executive Officer after steering the game through an ‘impossible summer’ during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The Englishman, previously the chief organiser of Australia’s postponed Twenty20 World Cup, was appointed interim CEO last June after Kevin Roberts resigned amid growing criticism of the board’s performance during the health crisis.

“I think what we’ve seen him deliver over the impossible summer, in some respects, him working with Australian cricket was able to deliver an outstanding result,” CA Chairman Earl Eddings told reporters on Monday.

Australia’s Test series against India, hugely vital for the domestic game in terms of revenues, was staged in a bio-secure bubble and went off without a hitch despite an outbreak of Covid-19 in Sydney that threatened to disrupt the third match.

Hockley faces further challenges, including working on a new collective bargaining agreement with players.

The last negotiations became acrimonious in 2017 after CA attempted to replace a long-standing revenue-sharing model with the players.

The players union refused to budge and CA was forced into a humiliating retreat before the pay deal was signed.

Hockley said relations with the players were sound.

“We’re already starting to talk about what’s important to the playing group, what’s important to the game and those discussions will continue in the upcoming months,” he said. “I think we’re starting from a really strong footing.”

Meanwhile, Australian cricketers, including former captain Steve Smith and David Warner, were released from hotel quarantine in Sydney on Monday after being evacuated from India amid a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Jason Behrendorff were also among those released after a two-week quarantine following their return home in the wake of the Indian Premier League’s suspension.

“It’s always tough being stuck somewhere, and knowing that we’re able to get home was a relief, and now we’re out of quarantine, I can’t wait to get home and see my family,” Behrendorff told Australian media.

An Australian IPL contingent of 38 players, coaches, officials and commentators were forced to take charter planes to Sri Lanka and the Maldives after the government placed a temporary ban on travellers from India due to the worsening health crisis in the Asian nation.

The ban was lifted two weeks ago.

“They’re clearly quite shaken from the experience, very appreciative to be home, to be back in Australia,” Hockley told reporters. “Now once the players are out of quarantine we will be working to offer them [Covid-19] vaccinations before heading off to the West Indies.”

Cummins, Smith, Warner and Behrendorff will have only two weeks’ rest before assembling in Brisbane ahead of the white-ball tour of West Indies, which starts on July 9.

The remaining matches of the IPL will be completed in the United Arab Emirates in September and October, the Indian Cricket Board said over the weekend.

CA have yet to endorse Australian players’ return to the IPL, which precedes the Twenty20 World Cup in India and a big home summer featuring the five-Test Ashes series and a one-off Test against Afghanistan.

The IPL could provide players with a good warm-up for the T20 World Cup but would also mean a prolonged and taxing stint in bio-secure bubbles for the likes of Cummins, Smith and Warner.

“Once ... we get back together as a group, that’s something that obviously well need to discuss,” said Hockley.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2021