Tough times still ahead for county but tough calls have helped
THE Covid-19 crisis is likely to cost Derbyshire County Cricket Club £1.5m in lost revenue and, even though the season is now over, the club is braced for many more months of hardship.
But chief executive Ryan Duckett said that had they not reacted as quickly as they did to the impact of the outbreak on sport, they could have been in a much more perilous state.
The Derbyshire squad were well into their preparations for a new season when the deepening crisis led to lockdown. They were actually on their preseason tour to Zimbabwe and had to make an early return home.
All plans were then thrown out of the window – not least the club’s 150th anniversary celebrations – and they are still counting the cost, with the crucial Christmas party season also likely to be affected.
Tough times and more tough decisions lie ahead for the county club.
“We are looking at £1.5m in lost revenue,” said Duckett. “That’s not only missing out on hosting matches in front of crowds. December is always a good month for us, hosting Christmas parties, and that’s a challenge for all of us still, in the current restrictions.
“Like all sports and hospitality businesses, we have to accept that it’s unlikely there will be an improvement before Christmas but, hopefully, after Christmas and towards the next cricket season things will be improving and crowds will come back into sports and we can start planning with confidence that we are going to get some crowds in but, at the moment, it’s very difficult to do that.
“All we’re doing now is making sure we were in a robust financial position to make sure we can still manage what is still going to be a difficult six months and maybe longer. With what we’ve done and the support we’ve had, we are in a far better position than we could have been, that’s for sure.”
Duckett says there are five key reasons why Derbyshire are in a better position than might have been the case.
“Going back to the end of March, when things started to escalate, we were not quite sure what was going to happen but rather than just sitting there and waiting, we were quite proactive and straight away deferred the contracts of our overseas players, Sean Abbott and Ben McDermott, which was a significant cost saving to us,” he explained.
“Then I think we were one of the first clubs to furlough a lot of our staff and not just the cricket staff, right across the business. That government support was vital.
“The third thing was that we were in a better financial position than we had been for a while, having had a good 2019 (Derbyshire declared a club record surplus of £402,000 for the financial year).
“Also, it was so important to us that we kept the support of the members and from our sponsors. Without one of those five factors in our favour, it would have looked a lot bleaker.”
There was some county cricket, in August and September, but for the first time since 1940, Derbyshire did not play a single game within the county borders.
That was because the Incora County Ground was selected by the England and Wales Cricket Board to become a bio-secure bubble. The Pakistan and Australia men’s teams used the ground as an isolation base to prepare for series against England, while the England and West Indies women’s teams got ready for and played out a fivematch T20 series.
That meant a busy few months for the club’s operations, ground and catering staff and that the Derbyshire squad had to play all of their fixtures away.
It brought some financial compensation for the club and Duckett says Derbyshire were proud to play a part for the good of the broader game.
“It was important to give the club a bit of financial up-side but the big thing for us was to do what we could to safeguard the whole game,” he said.
“By playing our part in making sure the Pakistan series and the Australia series went ahead, the ECB could fulfil their commitments from a broadcast perspective and ensure that the appropriate funding could filter down not only through the professional game but through the recreational game as well.
“That was massively important. It was the right thing to do for the club but also the right thing to do for the game.
“There is some financial up-side for the club but there was also a significant cost in terms of travelling away to matches and you could say it was almost neutral there.
“It wasn’t a case of ‘wow, this is a game-changer financially for the club’ because it wasn’t actually about that. It was about protecting the interests of the game and while we’re certainly not out of pocket for doing that, it’s not been a big money-maker.”
The hope now – for everyone – is that the crisis will recede and normality returns as soon as possible. Duckett says it is impossible to predict how bad the damage will finally be but, for now, he is confident Derbyshire have dodged an even bigger bullet.
“As a result of what we did, 2020 won’t look as bad as it could have done,” he said.
“What we tried to do is protect the position of the club as best we can and I think we have done that.”