New CEO steeled for test
NICK Hockley once packed down in a rugby union frontrow before 76,000 fans, and he’ll need all that resilience and more as he attempts to steer the engine room of Australian cricket.
The man thrown into the deepest of deep ends following Kevin Roberts’s dramatic sacking as chief executive of Cricket Australia, says the experience of playing hooker at Twickenham has equipped him for the minefield that is his responsibility to solve.
“The front row is the most cerebral position on the field,” jokes Hockley. “I got a blue in a Varsity match for Oxford and played in front of 76,000 people. And I played for England at student level.
“I played against the Bath team of the mid-1990s, all international front rowers.
“You’re so focused, I ended up not really noticing the crowd. It’s just the adrenaline of the day and I think you can take that forward to the big events as well (as an administrator). Obviously you’re not playing in them, but game day is game day.
“I did max out the limit of my capability and I think that’s a mentality I’ve tried to take forward throughout my career.”
Since news broke that an approach has been made to former England captain Andrew Strauss to run Australian cricket, already the game has been abuzz about whether an Englishman could take the reins of our national pastime.
But right now it’s another Englishman in the chair – and although he’s reluctant to say whether he is coveting the permanent job as CEO – Hockley is keen to point out he’s an Aussie now.
And Cricket Australia can thank rugby for delivering it an unassuming administrator who worked on the London Olympics and led the historic Women’s World Cup earlier this year, which drew a record 80,000 fans to the final at the MCG.
“I shared a flat with three Aussies (at Oxford). I became close with them and then did a stint out here in corporate finance with PBC in my late 20s and that’s when I met my wife.
“The deal was after the Olympics were out of the way we would emigrate, and that’s what we’ve done.
“I’ve become an Australian citizen. My wife is Australian.”