Cricket Tasmania announces job losses due to pandemic cost-cutting

Cricket Tasmania has become the latest organisation to announce significant job losses in the wake of budget cuts stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Twenty roles have been lost and while some come from positions that were vacant there have also been redundancies.

The states are expected to take a 25% hit to their grants from Cricket Australia as the governing body looks to slash costs amid their own financial issues.

The South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) was the first to confirm job cuts and last week Cricket Victoria announced major changes with community cricket especially hard hit while the Melbourne Renegades WBBL coach, Tim Coyle, has lost his job.

Although the 2019-2020 Australian season was only impacted at the very end, Tasmania lost an international match as it was due to host the final ODI between Australia and New Zealand at Blundstone Arena. They have also been hit by the suspension of the AFL and are preparing for the potential of the next Big Bash season to be played behind closed doors.

"It's a very difficult time for businesses around the world, and unfortunately we're having to make some tough decisions to secure the future of Cricket Tasmania," chief executive Dominic Baker said. "Our financial position coming into this period was relatively good, having significantly reduced our levels of debt over recent years, however the immediate and future impacts of coronavirus have led us to this unenviable situation."

"With reductions in revenue from Cricket Australia; no events at the Blundstone Arena Function Centre; and cancellation of major events like the one-day international in March and this year's AFL matches, it would be negligent of us to not mitigate the risks that this new landscape poses."

"We are confident that the changes we have announced put us in a position that, when the time comes, we will see clubs all around the state back on the field, our own state teams continuing their campaigns and our staff back in schools and communities engaging the next generation of cricketers."