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Cricket Business Services

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Commercial

Commercial

The CBS team supports and services Cricket NSW. It comprises Finance, Facilities, Administration and Corporate Events, Government Relations and State Infrastructure, Match & Venue Operations (MOV) and, towards the end of this financial year, we also welcomed Team Operations (TO). Collectively, MOV and TO form the Cricket Operations team. We also welcome the national technology team into our family. The team faced another challenging season in 2021/22 due to COVID-19, albeit the challenges were different and the landscape more fluid. Numerous changes to the scheduling of matches, training requirements, events and hosting changes, and financial challenges were met and managed by the team exceptionally well. Whilst the year produced an operating loss, the cost base was managed well to contain the size of the loss. Lost BBL content, reluctance of fans to attend during the height of the Omicron wave and numerous additional COVID-related costs provided a challenging climate in which to operate. Opportunities were pursued with the major political parties during the Federal Election campaign, with a raft of funding commitments made to enhance cricket infrastructure around the State. It was enlightening to see “campaign headquarters” in our Herb Elliott Office with a tally board enthusiastically keeping track of commitments made. It was outstanding! Meanwhile, the Australian Cricket Infrastructure Fund delivered on numerous cricket projects across the State. Another highlight of the year was our move in the last week of June 2022 to our new home, Cricket Central. It has been 8 years in the making, but well worth the wait. Numerous challenges were faced by the project, not the least the persistent wet weather, and productivity challenges faced due to COVID-19. The end result is truly exceptional. A world class training and administration facility, that will also get to host elite level matches in the near future. At the time of writing, works are continuing to finish the remainder of stage 1, including landscaping, the café and maintenance shed.

We left our offices on Herb Elliott Avenue and moved to Cricket Central

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A big thank you to our project partners for their outstanding work on a complex site and in a difficult climate. Our partners include Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA), Buildcorp, Ford Civil, Evergreen, Mostyn Copper, Waypoint, RLB and Ethos Urban. A big thanks also to our Cricket Central (nee Wilson Park) subcommittee for their support during the project and Ed Smith, for Chairing our Joint Steering Committee. We also thank our funding partners – SOPA, NSW State Government, Federal Government, Cricket Australia and Venues NSW. We look forward to welcoming the cricket community for our community open day on Sunday 21 August 2022. All CBS teams have continued to provide outstanding service to CNSW, with some fantastic achievements that will have enduring benefits. I would like to thank all the CBS staff for their wonderful contribution, commitment and excellence in making a real difference. We look forward to continuing to make CNSW a better place, day by day.

Michael Dalton

Chief Operating Officer & Company Secretary

Information Technology

FY22 proved to be another challenging year for Australian Cricket (AC) Technology team. The AC Technology remains a reduced workforce from the previous years and Covid impacts. The team is sitting at the highest turn-over in headcount over the last 12 months, while nationally, user counts have increased back to the pre-Covid demands. As we continue to work through the demands, there has been clear direction on priorities and projects. Project Kondo (Grassroots Project) remains the highest priority. The first two milestones have been delivered on time. Preparation is underway for CNSW to migrate 100% of their community to the PlayHQ platform this upcoming summer. In FY22, key local and national initiatives were completed: Continue cost-out program and reduce Australia Cricket technology spends and find savings. Deliver At-Match support with zero major incidents. A new ERP platform has been determined and planning is underway for delivery in FY23. Ongoing protection in the Cyber Security space has ensured data exfiltration is being alerted to, with further changes and awareness to continue into FY23. A significant amount of work to further harden servers and Mac devices has resulted in our secure score percentage increase. The focus for FY23 will be to deliver Project Kondo, deliver the Australian Cricket Season and the ICC T20 World Cup, while continuing to optimise automation to drive efficiencies and keep Service Level Agreements/Expectations with the reduced workforce.

Emma Cashen

Senior Client Services Manager

Facilities and Corporate Event Management

The CNSW Annual Awards night

Since my commencement in late August, the focus has been on the development and activation of Cricket Central. We initiated over 20 work streams that included participants across all squads, involving 50 plus team members and several external participants who provided their input and expertise towards bringing Cricket Central to life. Several significant outcomes included naming all 16 meeting rooms after volunteers, the internal graphics reflecting the spirit of cricket and highlighting how this wonderful game has enriched people’s lives. The introduction of well-regarded Sydney caterers Create Catering and our turf curators Green Options will complement our world class facility, making it the envy of the sporting world. COVID19 continued to challenge the team throughout 2021/22. The Facilities team continued to lead and drive the CNSW Return to Work & Training working group in order to support a smooth transition back to normal business functions and the seamless re-opening of all metro and regional office locations.

The 2021/22 corporate event schedule was reformatted on a number of occasions this year as we juggled many government changes and strived to comply with strict COVID restrictions. We were extremely fortunate to be able to host most planned internal and external events this year, in a COVID safe setting for all stakeholders, whilst maintaining a premium event experience, albeit with reduced numbers in some cases.

In 2022/23, the Facilities & Corporate Events team will focus on the activation and revenue generation of Cricket Central along with the implementation of our Operational Plan of Management. We look forward to welcoming you to the new centre in 2022!

David McDonald

General Manager Venues and Development

People Experience Report

In 2021 the People Experience team saw much change within our function. There was turnover with both resignations and parental leave, resulting in welcoming new team members. We have a new business partnering model, with our HR advisors working alongside each division to closely partner managers. This model is working well. With COVID dominating our season, we developed our CNSW vaccination approach for our workforce. In addition, our COVID response continued to evolve to align government, stakeholder and Australian Cricket requirements. As restrictions increased and eased, we developed protocols to support our people while also ensuring we supported our community and highperformance needs. With extended restrictions, we focused on the wellbeing of our people, ensuring communication and connection opportunities were maximised, and promoted our Employee Assistance Program to provide additional support. We continued to evolve our way of working approach. The completion of Cricket Central in June 2022 has provided a muchanticipated space to inspire a way of working that enables great collaboration and an exceptional employee experience, with our people working and playing in world class office and cricket facilities. Organisational culture continues to be a focus. In collaboration with our leaders and people, we developed and launched new organisation values. These values (Relationships, Humility, Excellence and Imagination) continue to be embedded. Our most recent employee engagement scores indicate a strong understanding and evidence of our people living and demonstrating these values. The Cricket NSW People Experience Team are looking forward to the next 12 months as we focus on enhancing our employee experience, building on our talent and capability and cultivating a world class culture.

Leigh Kearney

General Manager - People Experience

Finance

The finance team’s deliverables and objectives were achieved in 2021/22 and the team continued to provide valuable support to the business. We collaborated with all Cricket NSW Squads and Teams to ensure that we provide adequate support in achieving their objectives. We were initiative-taking and purposeful and we gave timely, robust financial and non-financial information to resolve issues and risks.

The team led and supported the financial management of another COVID-19 pandemic-impacted season. Through regular, accurate and timely reporting of financial information, our leaders remained informed to make effective and accountable decisions, resulting in the business minimising the adverse financial impact to the 2021/22 year. The team has been involved in some key projects in 2021/22, including: • Managed the financials, cash flows, governance and reporting for the Cricket Central facility project at Wilson Park; and

• A robust budget for 2022/23 and a four-year financial plan was refreshed; it provided our leaders with key insights into the opportunities and challenges facing the business over the next five years In 2022/23, the finance team will continue to focus on providing ongoing support to the business strategy and our ‘wildly important goal’ (WIG), to double the number of 5-12 year olds playing cricket by 2025. There will still be a level of risks and challenges associated with achieving our budget for the upcoming cricket season. The finance team’s ongoing leadership will have a key role in navigating through these challenges and risks. We will need to remain nimble and provide timely and accurate financial information to our leaders for decision-making. Some of our key focus areas for 2022/23 include: • Assist with developing a sustainable funding model for

Cricket Central, work with venues team on effective costs management and provide analytical support on usage, pricing and reporting; • Continue to assist with improving financial literacy across the business and collaborate with other ‘Teams’ and ‘Squads’ to support the deliverables; • Improve the internal customer experience through enhanced technology, including online timesheets for casuals, better financial reporting and P&L experience; and • A people focus to improve capabilities within the finance team, uplift team member roles and continue their development and enhance retention.

Hari Shan

Head of Finance

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