'Greatest World Cup' boosts Australian coffers

Co-staging a successful World Cup this year helped boost Cricket Australia's annual revenue to Australian dollars 380.9 million (USD 270 million), allowing heavy investment to help grow the sport further, officials said today.
The governing body said it was an increase from Aus$295.9 million in the previous year to June 30 2014, largely due to the one-day tournament won by Australia in March.
"It is one of the great financial years for Cricket Australia. Let's hope there are many more to come like it," chairman Wally Edwards said at CA's annual general meeting in Melbourne.
"It was the greatest World Cup ever."

Chief executive James Sutherland said the tournament, which Australia co-hosted with New Zealand, "was easily the biggest sporting event this country has seen since the 2000 Sydney Olympics".
"The financial benefit from the tournament will be spread over the long term given that staging World Cups in Australia happens only once every 20-25 years," Sutherland said.

The World Cup included 20 sell-out games and a record crowd of 93,013 for the March 29 final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, while fans tuned into television broadcasts in record numbers.
CA said a final payment stemming from the cancelled Twenty20 Champions League, a joint venture between Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, also formed part of this year's windfall.

It outlined long-term planned investments of Aus$66 million as a result, with a major focus on women and girls' cricket and the upgrading of turf and synthetic wickets for hundreds of clubs around the country.