Edgbaston’s £5m jackpot

WARWICKSHIRE are expected to make £5million from the first Ashes Test — the most lucrative match in Edgbaston’s history. Four consecutive sold-out days mean the club have raked in around £7m in ticket sales alone and they are now set for another near-capacity crowd of 25,000 on the final day, having sold 2,500 at a cut-price £25 for adults in advance. Even allowing for a seven-figure staging fee paid to the ECB and hefty operational costs, the income will smash the previous best earner. In 2015, England’s three-day Test win over Australia was almost entirely responsible for Warwickshire’s annual profit of £2.266m.