Cash crisis looming on the horizon for cricket and rugby union

CRICKET and rugby union in England could be facing losses totalling £487m due to the coronavirus crisis.

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tom Harrison said the impact of the pandemic could cost his organisation £380m.

Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney says their governing body will lose £107m if the autumn internationals are cancelled.

Harrison said: “We anticipate with no cricket this year a worst-case scenario could be as bad as £380m. That would be the loss of 800 days of cricket across all of our professional clubs and the ECB. That is the worst-case scenario this year.”

There will be no professional cricket before July, but Harrison

is hopeful of fitting in a “significant” number of Test matches.

He added: “With a following wind hopefully we will be able to play a significant number of Test matches this summer which will helps us mitigate those financial losses that we are facing at the moment.”

The RFU has already lost £15m due to the crisis, but the cancellation of November’s games would hurt them much more significantly.

Sweeney said: “If the autumn internationals go ahead in November, which are key for us, we will still lose £32m in revenue. If they go ahead but behind closed doors that is a negative impact of £85m and if they are cancelled entirely that will be £107m on top of the £15m we have already lost. So it is a very significant loss of revenue and we are doing what we can to mitigate it.”

Asked what the impact would be if rugby was unable to restart until 2021, Sweeney did not skirt around the issue.

“That would be catastrophic, 85 per cent of our income comes form hosting men’s international games at Twickenham.”