Despite a strong public stance against further pervasion of sport by gambling money, Cricket Australia has refused to appear before a recent Senate hearing into gambling reform and resisted legislation to completely ban gambling advertising.
Back in April, CA chairman Mike Baird expressed strong opposition to any funding option that ‘puts gambling front and centre’ of cricket’s future. But in an August 5 letter to the committee examining the legislation, CA’s chief executive Todd Greenberg complained that ‘anticipated reduction in Cricket Australia’s revenue sources as a result of the (proposed) Bill will have a direct impact on Australian Cricket’s (sic) core community programs’.
Gambling revenues, Greenberg argued, indirectly helped fund, among other things, “integrity and anti-corruption programs” and initiatives supporting “women and girls’ cricket, Indigenous and multicultural participation”.