Nick Hockley, the outgoing Cricket Australia chief executive, has just five months left in the sport’s most demanding role. Yet, he continues to avoid the limelight.
“I know I’m nearing the end, but I’ve still got quite a lot to do.”
Hockley is an Englishman, but his ties to Australia run deep. While studying at Oxford University, he lived with three Australians, two of whom remain close friends.
The other, Ian Tucker, died after a brain injury on the rugby field in 1996. Within 12 months of that tragedy, Hockley worked in London with the corporate finance practice at PWC and soon sought a temporary transfer to Sydney. Sydney was where he met his Australian wife, Lauren, and the couple initially settled in the UK as Hockley worked on the 2012 London Olympics.
“Part of the deal with Lauren was, we got married in Sydney in 2010, and then after the Olympics, we would emigrate,” Hockey says. “I came out and met a lot of people in sports in Australia [in 2010], and they said, ‘Well, it’s quite difficult now; wait till you’re on the ground.’”
He finally secured a Skype interview in London with John Harnden, who now runs Melbourne and Olympic Parks. He was a Cricket Australia board member for much of the Hockley era and was chief executive of the then-imminent 2015 men’s Cricket World Cup in Australia.
“It was two o’clock in the morning, just before the London Olympics. I just got back from the Olympic Park, and Jemima, my daughter, was six months old, and she was screaming, and I couldn’t keep her quiet,” Hockley recalls.
Despite – or perhaps thanks to – his daughter’s contributions, Hockley got the job.
Hockley’s Successes
Hockley has managed to stabilize the game, signing significant broadcast and player pay deals that will prepare Australian cricket for the next strategic cycle while keeping it out of the spotlight.
“It’s been the privilege of my life to hold this office, and I’ve still got a lot to do,” he says. “To get to work on something that so many people care about – I believe that any business, even going back to my corporate finance work – it’s all about relationships.”
While financial concerns have been rarely absent, Hockey’s most significant challenges came from elsewhere. He cites Justin Langer’s departure as a coach (which occurred when he was not offered a long-term contract and chose to resign immediately) and the resignation of men’s Test captain Tim Paine after explicit messages the wicketkeeper exchanged with a Cricket Tasmania employee became public.
“The coach transition and Tim’s situation have been the hardest because I had such admiration and respect [for them], and they’ve also been really difficult. The former, we’ve had to make some tough decisions, but then the latter, where someone that you’ve worked closely with is having a difficult time, that’s been the hardest part.”
Planting Seeds in a Garden You Never Get to See
“It’s important to me that you leave the place stronger than you found it, but also that there’s a smooth handover. The bigger question for me was whether I do another whole strategic cycle or take this incredible experience and go on today to do other things,” Hockley says.
“It feels a bit premature, but I’ve been very fortunate; you’ve helped me reflect a bit,” Hockley notes. “One thing I’m not good at is celebrating our successes; I’m just like ‘on to the next thing.’ But I’m getting better at trying to celebrate everyone’s hard work. Then, the other bit is that I’m not very good at enjoying cricket and event days because you feel very responsible, and you just want to make sure everything’s right. So I’m determined to enjoy this summer.”
