Foxtel – the longstanding partner of the cricket – appears to be controlling most of the conversations about which free-to-air network will end up with the rights. Industry observers have pointed to this being evident by the fact former Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein has joined the CA board and is leading the advisory group on the rights deal. Freudenstein still works as a paid director of real-estate listings portal REA Group, a News Corp controlled, earning $242,000 last year per its annual report.

CA has not asked Freudenstein to recuse from rights discussions despite his financial link to News Corp. Failure to secure a deal with significant financial uplift for the game would push CA towards sale of a portion of its commercial rights to private investment in order to raise additional capital.

CA’s chair Lachlan Henderson, who had previously declared that cricket was undervalued in the Australian market relative to the major football codes, pointed towards the competition among broadcasters as evidence that the governing body would raise the revenue it needs out of the deal.

“The conversation is commercial in confidence as we speak, but it is reaching the pointy end,” Henderson said on Friday. “There is a lot of interest in the cricket media rights, and we’re really pleased we’ve got interest from all the major parties.”

In 2018, CA’s pursuit of a $1 billion plus rights deal at all costs saw it reach terms with Foxtel to be the game’s prime broadcaster, ending nearly 70 years of cricket in Australia being broadcast almost exclusively on free-to-air.

From there, Seven and Ten duelled to be chosen as Foxtel’s free-to-air partner with rights to men’s Test matches, women’s internationals and the Big Bash League. Foxtel expressed an informal preference for Seven, as the two networks already had a partnership on the AFL rights.

Ultimately, Seven and Ten were split by the request to put in final bids by midnight on the evening before the deal was signed: Seven got over the line by offering $82 million per year over the course of the deal, outpointing Ten by just $2 million per year.

Nine and Seven declined to comment. Paramount was approached for comment.