View from the top: Nick Hockley

The top job at Cricket Australia has been fraught with drama over the past few years. The interim CEO’s pitch? Keep your eye on the ball. By Kirsten Galliott.

You were appointed interim CEO last June. Did you still expect to be in that position now?

I don’t really think too much about it. I’m acutely aware of the responsibility that comes with it and we’ve had a singular mission, which was to deliver a full summer of cricket. It’s been hugely engaging, intellectually challenging, relentless and an exercise in logistic decision-making and scenario-planning. The thing that’s been most overwhelming is the support we’ve received from so many people, whether it’s government, venues or our partners. It’s amazing how everyone pulls together in a crisis.

You’ve had COVID-19 to contend with, you had to make 40 people redundant on your second day and you had a very public stoush with Seven West Media. Has it been the most stressful year of your career?

Prior to last year, I didn’t really believe in stress. I felt that if you had a little bit of heightened anxiety, it was your body’s natural response to dealing with an issue. But the unique thing about this situation is that we’ve been dealing with things that are completely out of our control. The prospect of India being unable to tour would have had dire financial consequences [$300 million] for Australian cricket, which is a big employer – more than a thousand people across the country – and does a lot of work in the community. So we feel very grateful [that it went ahead]. I suppose I’m proud and pretty exhausted at this point as well.

There’s obviously a lot of scrutiny of whoever is in the top role at Cricket Australia, both from a business perspective and from the fans. How have you dealt with that?

There has been ongoing uncertainty and an additional level of complexity. I haven’t been afraid to say, “It’s a decision not to make a decision.” I think back to mid-October when there was huge speculation about whether the Boxing Day Test would be moved. I was very resolute that there would be no suggestion the Boxing Day Test would not be played in Melbourne until we’d exhausted every single possibility. I think being able to explain that even if you don’t have all the answers or haven’t made all the decisions, it’s a decision to make a call at a later point in time.

A lot of businesses are saying that because they’ve had to pivot so quickly and transform digitally, they’ll be much stronger companies in the future. Is that the case for CA?

I think that’s right. We used to have CEO meet-ups once every two months with the state and territory cricket associations. Now we speak for two hours once a week and we’re able to achieve so much more.

Do you think that will continue?

Yes, I think we will keep that level of collaboration and frequency of interaction.

I’d imagine being interim CEO has its challenges. Can it feel like a very long job interview?

My late father once gave me some advice: “Just do the absolute best you can in what you’re doing and the rest will take care of itself.” That’s been my mantra all my career – basically head down, get the job done and then the rest will look after itself.

You’ve been described in the press as a very safe pair of hands. Is that what CA needs at the moment?

A safe pair of hands feels like a compliment. My style is collaborative by nature. The leaders who resonate for me are those who surround themselves with the best people in the world. I’m not so precious as to think that I have all the answers – my role has been to organise people in the right places so they can do the best work possible in some very challenging circumstances. I’m a firm believer in thinking really, really big, setting a vision and then building a broad team to make that happen.

Have you been given free rein to make big decisions or does it feel more like a caretaking role?

I’ve had some very transparent discussions with the board and they wouldn’t have thanked me for not getting on and doing the role as I saw fit. Once crowds were back and cricket was happening, I made a very conscious effort to lift our eyes and think about what’s coming up on the horizon. Cricket works on a four-year cycle and 2023 is the end of the next four-year cycle. There’s a huge amount of work to be done around future scheduling and what all the ICC [International Cricket Council] events will look like. I’ve been getting on in the role until someone tells me to stop doing so.

What have you learnt about yourself and your leadership during 2020?

I think I’m quite calm in a crisis but I’ve learnt that not everyone else is. Leaders set the tone and people are watching you – so your body language is really important. I’ve also learnt that in the difficult times it’s okay to let people know that you’re having a really hard time; only through that process do people come on board and help. I’ve learnt that I don’t have all the answers but also that there’s value in having options.

What do you consider to be your greatest strength as a leader?

I’d say my greatest strength is pulling together different groups of people, giving everyone an opportunity to get their perspective on the table and then working through that. I’ve been a bit of a translator this year, too. I’ve learnt a huge amount about epidemiology and I’ve really enjoyed my 7am walks with [sports physician] John Orchard and just trying to understand it all. The medical advice has driven all the operations. The devil has been in the detail because the margins for error have been so small.

What’s your biggest gap as a leader?

I don’t like to talk up my own achievements so the challenge for me has been talking about our achievements in a very visible and public way. My personal perspective is that the players and the coaches are the stars of the show. If all is going well, you shouldn’t hear from the administrators. But as we’ve re-emerged, I’m spending an increasing amount of time thanking people and celebrating others for actually putting on the summer.

You’ve said before that you share a leadership approach with Justin Langer, who coaches the men’s team. What is that approach?

Justin and I have been speaking a fair bit through this period. With all the noise and speculation swirling around, one of the things we discussed was that what really matters is the thing you do in the next five minutes. What’s going to increase the chances of the summer cricket happening? What’s the next phone call you’re going to put in? Who are you going to speak to? Which groups of people are you going to pull together to formulate a plan? Justin’s equivalent is to follow the process, focus on building an innings, focus on the next ball and then the next ball. If you focus on the next ball enough times then you’ll get a hundred. It’s trying to establish that concentration on what you can do immediately in order to have the confidence that the process will affect the outcome. I’ve found that analogy really helpful to avoid getting distracted.

“What really matters is the thing you do in the next five minutes… If you focus on the next ball enough times then you’ll get a hundred.”

You have an accounting background, which must have been a huge help in a year when it cost $30 million to charter planes and create a bio-secure bubble. And when you were heading up commercial negotiations for the London Olympics, you secured $1.2 billion in corporate revenue. Do you love all the number crunching?

I love the commercial work. Relationships at all levels are really important but I think senior-level relationships with our partners are absolutely fundamental. It’s what this sport is built on. Increasingly, commercial relationships need to be purpose-led, they need to be genuine and they need to be deeper than purely transactional.

Seven West Media was very vocal about its unhappiness with what it’s received for its level of investment. How will you restore that relationship or do you think it can’t be fixed?

Yes, I was disappointed in the way our free-to-air broadcast partner played out [its criticisms] in the media. We massively value Seven as a partner but we feel that some of its concerns very early on in the year were somewhat premature. At this point in time, there’s only one match that we haven’t played, which is the test match against Afghanistan that’s been postponed… The approach we hope for is if there are grievances, we sit down behind closed doors, have a grown-up conversation and work through it. If you treat people reasonably then people will be reasonable towards you. The public element has been disappointing and it’s slightly counterintuitive to attracting sponsors, attracting viewers and talking up the game.

Obviously cricket has had a tumultuous few years and the ball-tampering scandal still feels pretty raw. How have you worked to improve the culture of Cricket Australia?

Well, I think the teams have done an amazing job, both the men’s team under Justin Langer and the women’s team under Matthew Mott. Certainly, both playing squads want to win matches, they want to win World Cups but the real

“If there are grievances, we sit down behind closed doors, have a grownup conversation and work through it… The public element [of Seven’s complaints] has been disappointing and slightly counterintuitive.”

objective is to make Australians proud and I think we’ve seen that. For me, trying to improve the culture has been very much working with Australian cricket as one organisation. I think there had been some reasonably well-documented friction earlier on in the pandemic between state and territory cricket associations and Cricket Australia. The reality is that the state and territory organisations are ultimately our shareholders and for me it’s been highly collaborative, being very clear on roles and responsibilities. Solving problems has forced us to work more closely together and I think that has helped build trust.

It’s interesting that so many people formed such strong working relationships during 2020.

Totally. It used to be that to speak to a minister, you’d spend so much time trying to book in a meeting but now it’s like, “Let’s phone the health minister.”

Who do you turn to for mentorship?

I’ve been fortunate to have had some incredible bosses who I keep in touch with, as well as my team from the London Games. Vinai [Venkatesham] is now the CEO of Arsenal Football Club and Simon [Massie-Taylor] is the chief commercial and marketing officer of the English Rugby

– so we’re all facing the same issues. Jimmy Worrall [the founder and CEO of Leaders in Sport] has set up a Whatsapp group of sport CEOs from all around the world. We just jump on a Zoom call and chew the fat. It’s good to tap into all of those different worlds and no-one has the answers because we’re all doing this for the first time.

You’ve been working in cricket since you arrived in Australia in 2012. Some people might think it’s heresy for an Englishman to be running CA but do you bring a different perspective to the game?

I think I bring a business background, time in sports administration and a focus on the commercial side of sport, which is ultimately really important in order to be able to play the sport. I married an Aussie, I’ve become an Australian citizen and I lived with three Aussies at university in England so I feel a great attachment to Australia. And I love the game. I laugh at people who say, “Well, how can an Englishman have this position in Australian cricket?” I say, “Well, the coaches of the English Rugby Union League and cricket teams are Australian so I’m just addressing the balance!”

That sounds fair... What’s something that your team would be surprised to know about you?

However hard it’s got, being at home with the kids has been a great leveller. I’ve used that to try to keep a bit of perspective. So when it’s become really hard and I’ve needed to take a break, I’ve gone and read the girls a story just to take me completely away from it. I actually find that quite helpful. And you generally find you have a solution to the problem.

Current role Interim CEO, Cricket Australia

Tenure Eight months Age 46

Previous roles CEO, ICC T20 World Cup 2020; head of commercial projects, Cricket Australia; general manager, commercial and marketing, Cricket World Cup; head of commercial negotiations, London 2012 Olympics