ECB suffers big financial hammer blow

THE England and Wales Cricket Board has reported a loss of £16.1million for the past financial year, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic helping whittle the organisation’s cash reserves down to just £2.2million. The ECB’s financial results for the year ending January 31 make for sobering reading given expectations that the previous annual profit of £6.5m would increase significantly.

In 2016 the ECB reported cash reserves in excess of £70m, but that figure has plummeted sharply over the past five years to its current slender level. Cricket as a whole in England and Wales has accrued revenue losses of more than £100m, although that outlook is still better than the worst-case scenario had a full men’s international programme as well as one women’s series not been salvaged in a bio-secure bubble.

Scott Smith, chief financial officer at the ECB, said: “This has been a challenging year, but by being able to stage international cricket and by taking decisive action early in the pandemic, we have been able to support the network and avoid a far worse financial scenario.

“There remains considerable uncertainty over the year ahead, but we hope that delivering another full summer of cricket – and with crowds beginning to return from next week – we are able to protect the revenue we need to invest in growing our game.”

ECB revenue fell by £21m to £207m, with the postponed launch of The Hundred and the associated costs of setting up and maintaining the bio-secure international bubbles cited as factors.

The financial statement notes: “This fall in revenue and profit reflects the significant impact that Covid-19 has had on ECB’s finances due largely to the postponement of ECB’s new competition, The Hundred, until 2021 and the additional costs of creating bio-secure environments to host international cricket in a pandemic environment.”