Tasmania’s Premier Peter Gutwein has rejected Seven Network claims that Cricket Australia was paid to bring Big Bash games to the island state.
In an affidavit submitted to the Federal Court, Seven’s managing director Lewis Martin said he believed CA would only have chosen to play eight of the first 12 games in Tasmania if financially incentivised.
Martin said he had told Big Bash boss Alistair Dobson that Hobart was the least preferred city for Seven to cover games from.
The claims form part of Seven’s application to view emails between CA, the BCCI, pay-TV broadcasters Foxtel and state governments.
“CA scheduling the playing of eight of the first 12 Men’s BBL Matches in Tasmania in two relatively small and unheralded stadia … would be commercially irrational,” Martin said in the affidavit seen by AAP.
“Unless CA were otherwise incentivised, presumably by arrangement with the Government of Tasmania, to do so.
“In the 2019-2020 Men’s BBL Tournament, only one of the first 12 Men’s BBL Matches was played in Tasmania.”
Oh what a sight! (Photo by Scott Barbour – CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images)
Eight matches will be played at Hobart’s Test ground Blundstone Arena in the tournament, while two will be played at University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston.
In the affidavit, Martin claimed it showed CA had put the Tasmanian government before Seven, and a requirement to place matches at a high-quality venue.
However, Premier Gutwein denied any such suggestion on Tuesday night, in a statement provided to the Hobart Mercury.
“We are thrilled to host the ten world-class games, which is a huge win for Tasmanians and puts our state on a global stage,” he said.
“The Tasmanian Government continues to provide funding to Cricket Tasmania to support cricket development and the hosting of Big Bash League and Women’s Big Bash League matches in the state.
“But there were no incentive payments made.”
The claims were the latest in an ongoing and public feud between the sport and its free-to-air broadcaster.
CA also maintain they have done nothing wrong legally and have fulfilled their six-year $450 million contract with Seven.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Ironic considering, if you believe what has been taken as gospel by most, Seven sold on the one-day rights to Fox.
U
Roar Rookie
We all knew channel 7 would screw up the cricket
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
channe 2 ABC could do a better job than7.
fabian gulino
Roar Rookie
channel 7 is full of bull dust at cricket,fox sports/kayo is the way to watch. what channel 7 are only interest is boring test matches,which is wrong.
Paul
Roar Guru
in this era, that would be a strong one, I'd have thought. At least this gives a pretty strong indicator games will actually happen.
Rellum
Roar Guru
If any sporting organization hasn't learnt this already, do not do business with 7.
Adam
Roar Guru
Incentives being that the state has been covid free for over 100 days?
Paul
Roar Guru
The Tassie Premier has not actually addressed the issue raised in the affidavit; "“Unless CA were otherwise incentivised, presumably by arrangement with the Government of Tasmania, to do so. " This does not say Tassie made incentive payments, but that incentives were offered.
Paul
Roar Guru
In a word, they're desperate, Joshua. They badly want to get out of the current contract and are trying anything and everything to do so. Part of their problem is they're free to air and the ODI's are being shown behind a paywall by Foxsports and Kayo. Great for them, bad for 7.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
If they haven't already, Seven have well and truly lost the plot. 1. Seven have only lost out on one Test match this summer due to the cancellation of the Test vs Afghanistan. They are more or less getting what they paid for. All the quality stuff they're coming out with is rubbish, they should have known what they were getting into two years ago when the rights deal was signed. Little has changed since. 2. CA offered Seven a discount of 20% on this season's rights, which Seven refused, despite this looking to me like quite a decent discount. 3. Seven shot themselves in the foot by not maximising the audience for the WBBL final as they put it on 7mate rather than the main channel. The appetite for cricket is there, given the cumulative figure of one million viewers across the weekend for the WBBL final and the 2nd ODI between Australia and India. Why doesn't Seven recognise that they will be able to cash in on this?