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Cricket Australia has revealed 40 staff will be let go as the governing body seeks to cut costs by approximately $40 million in the next financial year.
Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings has described the loss of 40 jobs as "soul destroying" after overhauling the sport's pathways program as part of a move to slash costs by $40 million over the coming financial year.
Eddings, whose board on Tuesday removed Kevin Roberts and installed Nick Hockley as interim chief executive, revealed the organisation's restructure to staff on Wednesday.
It is understood batting coach Graeme Hick is among those let go, but support staff for national teams have been relatively unaffected compared to other departments.
Eddings refused to shed any light on which parts of his organisation were hit hardest, but admitted recent days had been "unquestionably" more challenging than the aftermath of the 'sandpapergate' scandal in 2018.
"When you lose really good staff like today, through no fault of their own, it's really gut wrenching," Eddings told reporters.
"Really, really soul destroying. This has been very, very tough and to say goodbye to those people is incredibly difficult.
"It's a very traumatic time for a lot of people ... very stressful."
Some 200 workers were stood down by Roberts in April, when he cited fears that CA would run out of money by August.
Redundancies have long been considered inevitable, especially after state associations cut a total of more than 150 jobs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eddings suggested standing stand staff down, coupled with promising developments regarding this summer's calendar, ensured CA could save more jobs and protect the core part of its business, "grassroots programs and high-performance programs".
"Three months ago, we were looking at more drastic cuts," he said.
CA has shelved plans to trim the length of the Sheffield Shield, women's Big Bash League and other domestic competitions.
But Australia A tours, CA XI fixtures, the national second XI league and programs for some junior representative teams are on hold for a year.
It was later announced that a
"I really want to apologise to those people who may be impacted ... we know how much it means to represent your state and country," Eddings said.
"We'll try to do everything we can to get these programs back online in the foreseeable future."
As forecast by national men's coach Justin Langer, CA will wind the clock back and ask states to play a more active role in developing the talent that feeds into national teams.
The added responsibility comes as states brace for their funding to be cut by 25 per cent, although Cricket NSW and Queensland Cricket continue to push back on that proposal.
Eddings noted CA is in "constant dialogue with our states and territories", adding it is too early to talk about potential governance reforms.
In addition to the steps already taken, the governing body has vowed to slash all bonuses for senior management, reduce executive pay and cut spending on administration, travel, marketing and advertising.
Meanwhile Cricket Scotland confirmed that the one-off T20 international against Australia scheduled for June 26 has been cancelled.
Scheduled as part of a limited overs tour of the UK, the teams have agreed to pull the pin on the Edinburgh fixture because of the costs and logistics involved in staging a one-off fixture in a secure environment amidst the coronavirus.
