COVID 19 Cuts Deep Downunder

Victorian grass roots game gutted by CV staff redundancies.
Daniel Brettig.
Cricinfo.
Saturday, 2 May 2020.
PTG 3108-15374.

Up to half of Cricket Victoria’s (CV) staff have been sacrificed, with community cricket particularly hard hit, in a restructuring of the state association that has been explained away as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic but has origins stretching back nearly a decade (PTG 3108-15375 below).  Two weeks after Cricket Australia (CA) staff were informed that the vast majority would be stood down, CV has gone alarmingly further, making a huge chunk of the organisation redundant while asking others to reapply for their jobs - the former Australian Football League (AFL) coach and now CV talent specialist Guy McKenna among them.

Cuts to community cricket, believed to number up to 45 staff, are set to leave as few as 12 employees remaining to be the links to grassroots programs and competitions in Australia's second most populous state, and leave a gaping hole in CA's wider strategic plans to grow the game's participation in every part of the country. Of those 45 positions, three are female participation officers.

CA, which made a portion of its recent funding to the states conditional on its use to specifically service community cricket, is understood to be furious at the cuts and the way they have been administered, with multi-million dollar distributions to Victoria's powerful premier clubs untouched by the changes while a host of staff have been asked to pack up their desks.

Other states are also believed to be aghast at the cut backs, even as the associations and the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) haggle with CA over adjustments to their annual grants under a financial model signed up to in 2012 alongside the move to an independent board for the central governing body. There are suspicions that CA's alarms over the game's finances helped smooth the ground for CV's own, more drastic culling.

Following discussions between CA, the states and the ACA on Thursday, when the CA chairman Earl Eddings and fellow director Paul Green presented their interpretations of the organisation's finances and forecasts, there is an increasing likelihood of in-principle agreement on reduced annual grants with in-built flexibility for revenue fluctuations depending on how next austral summer unfolds. However, it is likely that some states at least will wait until the winter football codes get back under way before formally committing themselves.

These latest cuts to CV have arrived less than a year after its board chose to disband the boards of the two Big Bash League (BBL) clubs, the Stars and the Renegades, and also make their chief executives Clint Cooper and Stuart Coventry redundant. That decision also saw the removal of a selection of highly influential business and media figures, Collingwood AFL club president and media personality Eddie McGuire, Hawthorn AFL great Jason Dunstall and Sport Australia chairman John Wylie among them, from their positions on the boards.

In the wake of these changes the BBL clubs and CV as a whole faced a raft of sponsorship exits, from the likes of Mars and Optus among others, contributing to an overall weakening of the association's financial position and the recording of an operating loss of around $A2 million (£UK1.1m) for 2018-19.  While that trend is believed to have continued over the 2019-20 summer, there is widespread shock at the way that CV has responded to events, outstripping the actions of the South Australian Cricket Association, which cut some 23 staff and contractors in late March (PTG 3065-15177, 29 March 2020), and then CA itself, though further cuts to the central governing body are expected in the new financial year.

Problems around the strategic direction of CV have deep roots, stretching back to moves post-2012 to make its board independent of a system of Premier Legue, sub-district and regional club delegates that has historically held sway over the game in Victoria.  Former CV chief executive Tony Dodemaide and chairman Russell Thomas fell out with numerous clubland figures over governance moves and their funding implications, ultimately being replaced by Paul Barker as chairman and Ingleton as chief executive. Peter Williams, Jane Nathan and Phil Hyde, all part of a ticket that had attempted to unseat Thomas and five other directors en masse in 2017, have subsequently worked their way onto the board.

Barker, a consensus choice as chairman, is facing a likely further erosion of his support on the CV board itself later this year, with longtime directors Paul Jackson and Claudia Fatone facing re-election in the face of mounting opposition from delegates. The CV board is composed of six delegate-elected directors and three independently appointed directors. At the same time the construction of the $A40m (£UK20.5m) Junction Oval training and administration hub offered Victoria some of the best facilities in the country but also added significantly to the association's cost base (PTG 2496-12616, 2 July 2018).

Community game is now Australian cricket’s patsy.

Gideon Haigh.

The Australian.

Saturday, 2 May 2020.

PTG 3108-15375.

Cricketers need luck; the same is true of cricket administrators. In his 18 months in charge, Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Kevin Roberts has had a great deal of good fortune.  His tenure began, of course, with Australian cricket still raw from Sandpapergate. But others, players mainly, took the fall there, and it meant that Roberts inherited a team on its best behaviour, anxious to work its way back into the public’s good graces. They have spared him any significant on-field controversies.

There had been an unsparing review of CA’s culture, which one might have thought would reflect a little on one such as Roberts who as a director and executive had been a shaper of it for six years. But again, others took the blame — including a key patron, chairman David Peever, from whom Roberts deftly detached.  Most of the other settings were positive. His predecessor James Sutherland had left the game with a big, fat broadcast deal stretching to 2024, a stable of long-term sponsors, a shiny high-performance centre, and a new coach and captain who happened to work very well together.

CA’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), the players’ union, had been concluded — it had taken too long, and caused a good deal of collateral damage, but could for the moment be regarded as settled.  The schedule, meanwhile, was set-and-forget. Coming off a home Ashes in 2017-18, Australia slid straight into a home summer against India in 2018-19, followed by a World Cup, followed by more Ashes. Again, none of this had anything to do with Roberts, but he was its beneficiary.

So to the present, when Roberts has been lucky again. CA managed to finish its home season before the worst of Covid-19 was felt, and also to find savings pretty quickly from cancelling a tour against opponents Bangladesh, whom we have made a practice of treating scurvily. No change required (PTG 3079-15247, 10 April 2020).  As a matter of fact, the crisis was not without opportunities for a mature non-contact sport drawing diverse revenues from long-term contracts with established partners not dependent on the taxpayer.

CA had money in the bank, had lost no content, had ample time to adapt before needing to host its next fixtures, and could even offer 'The Test' — the eight-part Amazon Prime documentary series that’s been a viewing oasis in these barren times (PTG 3049-15095, 13 March 2020).

So, yes, troubling times, to be sure, but not without grounds for comparative optimism. For a time these were the sounds that emanated from CA headquarters in Melbourne. Then they weren’t. Roberts had CA, an organisation with annual revenues of $A485 million (£UK250m) , stand down four in five of its staff to achieve a $A3m (£UK1.6m) saving. His initial response to their hardship was to write to the boss of ‘Woolworths' inquiring whether they might be fixed up with some casual work there (PTG 3094-15309, 23 April 2020).  This was prudence to a fault. 

If Roberts could not find $A3 million in immediate cost savings simply asking line managers for ideas around his office, then he has the wrong people in charge.  If Roberts wants CA to be a sports employer of choice, then offering career trajectories to shelf-stacking is not the way to bring that about. He has left many good people bitterly disillusioned.  If Roberts wants players to prepare to tighten their belts, then CA needs to deal transparently with their representatives, the ACA.  “Come with me” is something cult leaders say. It demands trust, does not engender it.  If Roberts wants cricket to pull together, then telling CA’s shareholders, the state associations, to be prepared for their disbursements to be basically halved over two years was hardly the best way of gaining their co-operation.

For all the fascination in how big a haircut players might take, this may prove his bigger problem. Cricket Victoria’s (CV) decision on Thursday to “restructure” itself is the latest example of the unpredictable forces unleashed by his austerity mandate (PTG 3107-15370, 1 May 2020 and 3108-15374 above).  Half of CV's staff are gone; three-quarters of the community cricket staff, carefully nurtured, resourced by CA, have had their positions made redundant. There will now be 12 staff to service the state’s 1,100 grassroots clubs. If you’re a community club in need of support — as mine was last year, and very professionally assisted we were — get ready for catching practice from the bounceback emails.

Savour the disingenuousness of this official CV response, if you will: “It is incumbent on us to respond to current and future challenges presented by coronavirus. We also need to ensure Victorian cricket is in a position to rebound when levels of normal life return. Our response involves some really difficult decisions across the organisation and we’re working through those at the moment”.  Oh, pass me the sick bag.

Such is the lot of community sport. It has no one to bang a fist on boardroom tables — no executive, union or agent. Its needs are distant and diffuse. It ritually takes up slack, makes do and mends. Looks like it will be expected to again.  Roberts should be granted this: cricket’s cost base has been vulnerable for some time. A kind of reckoning had always portended, if only because broadcast partners were being stretched so thin and administrative ambitions had grown so great.

The days when sport backed the truck up to television networks for a load of money are fast receding. Who knows how the game will be accessed five to ten years hence and what that will be worth? If Covid-19 has sharpened this reality check and brought it on more quickly, the realm of Lampedusa was always visible in the distance: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change”.

But cricket is now also in danger of taking short-term measures with severe long-term consequences, like someone with a toothache just deciding to empty their bottom jaw with a pair of pliers.  It’s not just what cricket does in this crisis but how it does it that will shape the game of the future. Roberts has been a lucky chief executive so far. But luck doesn’t last forever.

NSW bucks trend with key hire as CA tightens belt.

Chris Barrett and Andrew Wu.

Sydney Morning Herald.

Saturday, 2 May 2020.

PTG 3108-15376.

While Cricket Australia (CA) chief Kevin Roberts has sent the game into a spin with his claims of a cash crisis, the most influential of the sport's state associations is hiring not firing.  In the midst of the coronavirus shutdown of sport, Cricket New South Wales (CNSW) has appointed former opener Greg Mail as its head of cricket. His arrival follows a CNSW high performance restructure and gives him oversight of the men’s and women’s programs.

Confirmation of Mail's appointment comes with CA facing further pushback from the states, who remain unconvinced of the gloomy financial forecast coming out of national headquarters despite another presentation on Thursday afternoon.  Sources have indicated some states, unsatisfied with the projections, were probing CA for more information before they can approve a 25 per cent cut to grants, though other associations are more amenable to the reductions.

There remains a belief by some that CA over-reacted by standing down about 200 staff on 20 per cent pay, a move the governing body insists was necessary despite chief executive Kevin Roberts' apology this week on how the news was delivered to workers.  States have already begun making changes in reflection of the dramatically altered landscape as a result of the pandemic. Victoria confirmed on Friday it was cutting staff (PTG 3107-15370, 1 May 2020), Tasmania is set to restructure its organisation, while Queensland is looking at a reduction of hours for workers.

Mail, 42, who played 72 first-class games for NSW, agreed the uncertain landscape created by Covid-19 made it an "interesting" time to start.  “It’s going to be a difficult time across a wide range of industries. No one really knows how this is going to play out”, Mail said.  “It will also give us an opportunity to assess the way we do things. Not just in cricket but I think a lot of businesses are thinking how they might come out the other side of this. Even though it’s an uncertain time, it’s a good time to start”.  Hehas spent the past decade in the banking industry with Westpac.

Penrith-born Mail hasn’t exactly been a stranger to cricket since then, completing a record-breaking career spanning 22 years in the Sydney first-grade competition as well as picking NSW teams as a state selector, but this is a full-time return to the game.  “It’s going to be nice to come home in a sense. Cricket NSW has always been a big part of my life”, he said.  “I always had in the back of my mind that I might come back to cricket in some meaningful capacity”.

Australia’s top doctor cautions on summer of cricket.

Chris Barrett.

Sydney Morning Herald.

Monday, 27 April 2020.

PTG 3101-15339.

Australia’s chief medical officer warned on Sunday “there is a long way to go” before travel exemptions for visiting teams such as Virat Kohli’s Indian side next austral summer can be approved, that advice coming around the time Test captain Tim Paine said players may consider a pay cut in the short term to help bail out cash-strapped Cricket Australia (CA).  Fearing the game would run out of money before the next $A100 million (£UK51.4m) television rights instalment from broadcasters Seven and Foxtel drops in September, CA has stood down most of its staff on 20 per cent pay until the end of June (PTG 3101-15338 above).

CA has been in delicate negotiations with the players union and the state associations about their part in costs being cut.  It hopes to reach middle ground with the states and players this week but there will also be a close eye on developments in Canberra, with the national cabinet set to finalise a set of principles the government requires for the resumption of sport around the country (PTG 3098-15328, 25 April 2020).  For cricket, securing international travel exemptions in the summer as part of that is crucial to the wellbeing of the game, with $A300m (£UK154,1m) in revenue resting on the participation of India in a four (or perhaps five) Test series against Australia due to start in December.

CA is drawing up biosecurity plans for how the series could go ahead, with an Adelaide Oval quarantine hub among the options on the table, while the federal government has also held talks with organisers of the Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in October-November. But while Sports Minister Senator Richard Colbeck said on Sunday that “we’d like things to be able to happen if they can”, Australia’s top doctor cautioned that there were many hurdles to clear in approving international teams travelling to Australia this year.

"There is a long way to go”, said chief medical officer Brendan Murphy. “We have not seen the proposals yet. I can assure you that there would need to be a lot of safeguards, particularly if it was talking about teams coming from a country with a high rate of transmission. That would be a concern and we would obviously need to mitigate that. There are mitigations that could be in place but it is very early in the process”.

While staging the T20 World Cup is a far greater challenge and it could be put back (PTG 3096-15319, 24 April 2020), it is the potential impact on a home series against India that would have the most disastrous financial implications for Australian cricket.  Senator Colbeck said health and safety concerns would be paramount when national cabinet met this week to consider how sport can re-start and in particular how international sport could take place, but the impact of a major event being cancelled to a sport’s finances will also be weighed up.

“As the Prime Minister [Scott Morrison] said on Friday, professional sport is a business, so that’s a consideration”, he said. “It contributes to employment. We’ve been talking to CA obviously and I talked to the organising guys from the T20 World Cup last week and they’re keen to get some information.  There are a lot of moving parts to a decision because [the Australian Border Force] will want some form of medical advice with respect to the processes that apply to a team coming into the country”.

Three weeks ago a report produced by CA’s chief medical officer was optimistic about next austral summer, suggested international cricket of some sort is probable, the domestic Big Bash League (BBL) and its women’s equivalent the WBBL are highly likely, and even the men's Twenty20 World Cup in October-November remains a chance of happening (PTG 3078-15240, 9 April 2020).

The comments of the nation’s top doctor came as Paine said on Sunday players may be willing to carry a financial burden on top of what they’re committed to as part of their agreement with CA, which gives them 27.5 per cent of revenue (PTG 3098-15325, 25 April 2020).  “It’s something that will be looked at if it needs to be. We’ll wait and see first what happens. I know CA and the [Australian Cricketers’ Association] are going deeper into the financial sort of stuff starting early next week”, Paine said on ABC Radio. 

"All things are on the table at a time like this. Our pay has always been attached to the revenue and that’ll be the same but if we need to go more, I’m sure those conversations will be had if needed.  Players need to know the absolute financial position of the game. Players aren’t going to be greedy. Our livelihoods ... are dependent on the game of cricket being healthy. If a pay cut for us is on the cards and that keeps our game thriving well into the future then that’s something we’ll certainly have to look at”.

While CA staff have been stood down and there have already been redundancies at the South Australian Cricket Association (PTG 3065-15177, 29 March 2020), there are also possible job cuts ahead in Victorian cricket.  “Victorian cricket is not immune to the impacts of coronavirus”, Cricket Victoria chief executive Andrew Ingleton said on Sunday. “We are currently working through what that means for our organisation and the broader cricket community”.

Broadcaster’s hardball approach to rights adds to CA’s challenges.

Nick Tabakoff.

The Australian.

Monday, 27 April 2020.

PTG 3101-15340.

Kerry Stokes, the head of Australian broadcaster Seven West Media, is applying the blowtorch to bosses of Cricket Australia (CA) cricket and the Olympics in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as the network looks to slash the $A350 million (£UK180.7m) it had earmarked to spend on sports rights this year.  Seven insiders say there is now a “big question” in terms of Seven’s rights to the cricket, with network chiefs looking at “all of our options” in relation to cricket and the Olympics.

The network has been poring over the fine print of its contracts with cash-strapped CA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with the network believing some of the clauses in its sports rights contracts will almost certainly be breached because of changes to scheduled events.  It is understood that at biggest risk is a twice-yearly $A40m (£UK    20.7m) payment due to be made by Seven to CA in September as part of the six-year contract with cricket’s governing body for Seven to screen Tests and the Big Bash League (BBL).

Before the pandemic, Seven had the biggest amount earmarked for sport of any free-to-air network this year, with $A100m (£UK51.6m) pencilled in for the Tokyo Olympics, another $A100m a year for Australian Football League (AFL) and $80m (£UK41.3m) for cricket.  But once production costs were included, the total costs would have been even higher: $A130m (£UK67.1m) for both the Olympics and the AFL, and $A100m for cricket.

Cuts are imperative for Seven, at a time it is valued by the market at a fraction of the value of these rights at $A128m (£UK66.1m) — an amount dwarfed by its debt load of more than $A500m (£UK258m) — and when Seven is applying for the Australian government’s ‘JobKeeper' program.  Seven sources say the network’s big concern with cricket is that until there is an effective vaccine for Covid-19, there will continue to be a hard lockdown of Australia’s international borders.

This could not only effectively hobble the proposed upcoming four-Test series between Australia and India, but also deprive the BBL of most of its international star power.  Even if Australian state borders are freed up by that point, the international lockdown could turn the 2020-21 BBL into a largely domestic T20 series, leaving it as a pale imitation of previous series that featured global names such as Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Rashid Khan.  Seven is believed to have made a $A40m (£UK20.7m) payment to CA last month, as part of its contract signed in 2018.

The cricket renegotiation comes at a particularly critical ­moment for CA chief executive Kevin Roberts. He faces great pressure over his organisation's huge hole in its ­finances.  But CA is not the only sporting body under pressure. Seven will also not be making the bulk of the $A100m it was due to pay to the IOC in June and July.  It is understood the final payment was due to be made to the IOC on July 24, the day of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. But Seven now believes it has ample grounds to renegotiate the amount it pays for the Tokyo Games in 2021, with pandemic ­experts playing up uncertainty the event will even go ahead a year late.

Seven does not appear to be as hellbent on cutting its spending on the AFL as with cricket and the Olympics, perhaps because of its long-term close relationship with the sport. But it could still stand to save millions on its deal, given that the AFL seems to be taking a much more cautious approach to restarting its season than the NRL, which is looking to recommence its ­season on May 28.  

In recent weeks Hugh Marks, chief executive of another broadcaster Nine, has been looking to make savings on the National Rugby League (NRL). He has already taken a public hard line, having last month released a provocative statement to the Australian ­Securities Exchange revealing that Nine would save $A130m (£UK67.1m) if the NRL’s 2020 season were cancelled.

As CA enters stand down, NZC staff protected.
Daniel Brettig.
Cricinfo.
Friday, 24 April 2020.
PTG 3096-15317.

Staff at Cricket Australia (CA) have been asked to cope with a level of austerity that its far smaller equivalent governing body in New Zealand has not even considered. New Zealand Cricket (NZC), run on an annual revenue of about $NZ60 million ($A56.6m, £UK29.2m), has confirmed it has not stood down a single employee during the coronavirus pandemic, as Australian cricket's state association owners and player partners pleaded with CA for more financial information about the governing body's self-declared cash crisis (PTG 3096-15320 below).

NZC's business is only a fraction of the size of CA's, which turned over $A485 million (£UK250m) in revenue according to its 2018-19 Annual Report, and has delivered financial losses over each of the past three years. Nevertheless, with the promise of wage subsidy support similar to the Australian government's ‘JobKeeper' scheme and a further guarantee of government support maintained for the following year, NZC has no intention of standing down or cutting into the pay of its staff.

The NZC complement is composed of 75 staffers divided between the national high performance centre in Lincoln outside Christchurch and the organisation's head office in Auckland. Rather than being stood down or compelled to take a major pay cut, NZC staff have been placed on four-day working weeks and also asked to use up their paid annual leave during the pandemic period between seasons.

"We take our duty of care as an employer seriously and, at this juncture, want to avoid any changes to our employee headcount or remuneration levels”, NZC's chief executive David White said earlier this month. "However, we'll continue to closely monitor the effects on the wider cricket family” (PTG 3073-15215, 4 April 2020).

CA, players in stand-off over potential pay cuts.
Andrew Wu.
Sydney Morning Herald.
Friday, 24 April 2020.
PTG 3096-15320.


The crisis in Australian cricket is about to deepen with players unwilling to come to the negotiating table over pay until their demands for transparency are met by the governing body (PTG 3092-15302, 21 April 2020). The discord between Cricket Australia (CA) and the players is poised to escalate on Friday, with a scheduled meeting between head office and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA), the players’ union. set to be postponed.


A week after announcing its intention to stand down the vast majority of staff and upsetting states with their dire financial projections (PTG 3084-15269, 16 April 2020), CA head office now finds itself in real danger of entering a potentially damaging pay dispute with national and state cricketers. The game cannot afford a repeat of the bitter feud of 2017, but there are already signs things could again get messy.


Reducing player pay is one of the four levers CA is pulling in order to cut costs to safeguard the game against financial disaster should the coronavirus pandemic prevent India from taking part in Tests and one-day series worth $A300 million (£UK154.1m) to the game's bottom line. The players believe their pay model is hard-wired for current circumstances as their wages rise and fall depending on the revenue the game can generate.


CA chief Kevin Roberts, who was a central figure in the acrimonious pay talks three years ago, said he respects the revenue-share agreement and has called for "creative solutions”. But the ACA has told CA there is little point in meeting on Friday until the governing body opens its books. Players, however, are prepared to meet over the weekend and next week once they are shown the numbers.


The ACA last month demanded CA provide them with a current forecast of cricket revenue for the remaining two years of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), as well as various financial modelling scenarios based on drops in income due to Covid-19. CA sent through further detail to the players on Thursday, but the ACA did not believe it was at the level required to warrant further discussions.


Sources said ACA chief Alistair Nicholson told player agents on Thursday players, like other stakeholders in the game, had a more optimistic outlook for next austral summer than CA. Players want to see CA's forecasts before agreeing to any cuts outside the current pay structure. Time is ticking as, under the MoU, CA must provide the ACA with national contract lists, plus revenue estimates for 2020-21 by next Thursday.


Players are growing increasingly anxious about their futures. "They don't know exactly what's going on; they're asking a lot of questions”, Victoria captain Peter Handscomb, who is a state delegate for the ACA, said. "There's concern for the fact it's an unprecedented time with this pandemic. Players don't know. I'm sure it's tough from CA's point of view ... it's a lot of unknown at the moment, which can be scary for everyone. I'm trying to help out with a few answers, but pretty much I have to get them to call the ACA as well. We trust the ACA and what they're going to do for us, and they're the ones who know more than I do”.


The ACA has proposed a reconfiguration of the pay structure with players to be offered a percentage-based retainer option. Roberts, however, has indicated CA will ask for money outside the deal. "We don't know what we can do and how we can help, as we are partners in the game”, Handscomb said. "If we don't have all the information on the table we can't exactly help that's in a way we think will be beneficial for everyone”.

Middlesex Furlough Players

BBCSport

Middlesex have become the latest county to furlough players and most of their staff amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2016 county champions confirmed the move as the England and Wales Cricket Board met to discuss when the domestic season could start.

All fixtures have been cancelled until at least 28 May.

Chief executive Richard Goatley said the county had made "difficult decisions to protect the long-term wellbeing and stability of the club".

Middlesex have also confirmed that, following consultation, all staff - furloughed or otherwise - with an annual salary above the £27,500 threshold, have agreed a 17% pay cut until the end of May initially.

Senior management will take a 20% cut.

Middlesex, who had been due start their County Championship Division Two campaign against Worcestershire at Lord's on 12 April, have retained a "skeleton staff" of senior management and those responsible for the day-to-day delivery of services to ensure the club continues to operate efficiently.

They join a number of other counties, including county champions Essex, in furloughing players while others such as Lancashire have confirmed pay cuts for all staff.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's ECB board meeting, Lancashire director of cricket Paul Allott felt salvaging international fixtures this summer will take priority.

"That's pertinent because of the situation with the current broadcast deal," the former England seamer told BBC Radio Lancashire. "That of course keeps the game running as that money filters down to each county.

"There are all sort of caveats and challenges associated with that. How is international travel is going to be affected medium to long-term? We don't know.

"From a domestic perspective, the ECB and counties are keen to preserve as much as they can of the T20 Blast.

"That is a fundamental part of Sky’s coverage and of fundamental importance in terms of getting people through the gates.

"It may be that is impossible, but it is attractive for TV viewers. I can’t see us playing on 28 May - that’s impossible."