Kevin Roberts, CEO Cricket Australia (CA), defended the board's decision to cut down its staff's salaries in a bid to remain financially stable amid the crisis brought about by COVID-19 pandemic. 

The plan was announced last week that all of CA's staff will be enduring 80 per cent layoff till the end of June, for which the board received heavy criticism, given it had some A$90 million in reserves at the end of March, including A$36 million in stock investments.

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However, Roberts said the board wants to be prepared for further financial blows, considering it remains uncertain when the on-field play will be safe to resume. 

"It wasn't an over-reaction because we're dealing with a situation that's hitting us unfortunately at the low point of our cash cycle over four years," Roberts told reporters in a video conference call on Tuesday (April 21).

"In early September ... if there's more shots (to CA's finances) as we've had over the last month or more, that in fact would effectively chart a path to zero if we weren't to take drastic action."

"Then you layer on top of that the possibility that the international season doesn't go ahead, that's an issue of hundreds of millions of dollars."

Roberts declined to comment whether players will also have their salaries affected by this phase, but confirmed that the discussions are going on with Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA).

"We're working through the detail of player payments with the ACA (Australian Cricketers' Association)," he said.

"What we've all seen and heard ... they're acknowledging everyone has a role to play here in helping to fight this situation, including the players in Australia's national teams."

As per the MOU signed between CA and ACA in 2017 after a contentious pay dispute issue, the governing body will have to to provide ACA with revenue estimates and next round of national contracts by April 30. 

(Inputs from Reuters)