Bentley Forbes Consulting Rankings 2019

The prestigious Bentley Forbes Consulting rankings for 2019 are here!  Sixteen of the 18 first class cricket counties ranked by financial strength.  For those interested in the basis of the calculation please see the first set of rankings I did here. 

The rankings for 2018 are here.  

This years rankings are a bit late, largely due to the counties being very slow filing their accounts with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).  In theory this has to be done within seven months of the financial year  - end but some counties are habitual late filers.  Some are years in arrears.  In theory there are sanctions for late filers and I raised this issue with the FCA.  They were very sweet, but clearly rather horrified by the suggestion they might like to do something.  

It's been a tumultuous two years for county treasurers.   First the feast of 2019 with a home cricket world cup and ashes series, then the famine  of covid 19.  In the past I've always based the table on the most recent set of financial statements I could get my hands on, even if it meant I wasn't always comparing like with like.  This year I don't think that approach flies, so for all counties I've based figures on year end 2018 accounts even when I have 2019 figures available.  I've already commented on Warwickshire  and Lancashire's 2019 accounts and I'll try and do brief write ups of other 2019 results as they become available.

 That's enough housekeeping on with the rankings (sound the trumpets)

 

County	Last year end	Profit	Assets	Ranking	Position	Move
Surrey	Jan-19	1	6	3.5	1	Level
Somerset	Sep-18	2	7	4.5	2	Up 1
Essex	Dec-18	10	2	6	3	Up 1
Notts	Sep-18	5	8	6.5	4	Up 1
Northhants	Sep-18	9	4	6.5	4	Up 5
Sussex	Oct-18	14	1	7.5	6	Up 1
Glamorgan	Dec-18	12	3	7.5	6	Down 5
Kent	Oct-18	6	9	7.5	6	Up 3
Worcestshire	Dec-18	3	13	8	9	Level
Derbyshire	Dec-18	7	10	8.5	10	Up one
Leicestshire	Sep-18	13	5	9	11	Down 6
Lancashire	Dec-18	4	15	9.5	12	Up 4
Gloucestshire	Jan-19	8	12	10	13	Down 3
Durham	Sep-18	15	11	13	14	Down 1
Yorkshire	Dec-18	11	16	13.5	15	Down 1
Warwickshire	Sep-18	16	14	15	16	Down 1

 

Some additional observations. At the top of the table Surrey extend their lead as the big get bigger (but what happens post coronavirus.) Northhants continue to climb the table boosted by the effective take -over of the old mutual county by a group of members. Lancashire pull away from the bottom as their hotel becomes a source of revenue; Glamorgan and Leicestershire are the big fallers (I have 2019 accounts for both so I'll try and do bit more on them.) 

At the end of 2018 I'd say the counties were in a more stable position than is often appreciated. True Yorkshire and Warwickshire are becoming marooned at the bottom of the table, but even they have support from Birmingham and Leed's city councils and, in the case of Yorkshire, the Graves' family trust. Admittedly, with the exception of Surrey, all of the counties would be a long way short of break even were it not for ECB distributions. But as I've said before  the counties aren't taking a hand out from the ECB, they are providing services, grounds to play test matches on, domestic teams for list A and first class cricket and development of young cricketers. Whether the ECB is getting good value for its money is a complicated issue, you'd need to make some sort of judgement about what it would cost for the ECB to provide these things without the counties. But I have a suspicion the ECB is getting a good deal.