Melbourne, Oct 28: A successful World Cup and Ashes Series lifted Cricket Australia's profits by more than USD 11.2 million in 2002-03, CA said today. CA recorded a net surplus (prior to distributions to states) of USD 33.5 million in 2002-03, up from USD 20.3 million in the previous year.
Returns from the World Cup in Southern Africa last February-March and healthy English broadcast rights for the ashes series here last southern summer increased revenues by more than 16 million dollars.
But CA Chief Executive James Sutherland said a good proportion of the increased profits would be put away to provide for forecast losses in coming years.
Sutherland said CA will bank almost one-quarter of that profit to cover potential losses in the next couple of years to smooth annual distributions to the six state associations and player payments.
The Zimbabwe/India Test and one-day series this summer will be followed by West Indies/Pakistan in 2004-05 and South Africa/New Zealand in 2005/06.
"We are budgeting a loss for next year because our distribution under the smoothing policy will be greater than our surplus," Sutherland said in reference to lower revenues expected in non-World Cup years.
Bureau Report