Warwickshire's accounts for the period to 30 September 2019 are now available on the county's website .  This post is my take on the financial results for the period, my posts on earlier years are on these links,  2018 2017 2019 Results In Brief  2019 was always going to be a good year for Warwickshire with two money spinning events,  an Ashes test which went to the 5th day, and a cricket world cup staged in the UK.  Not surprisingly revenue soared by 54% to £27m.  But it was gratifying that costs of sale only increased by 27%.  Warwickshire bucked the recent trend of revenue growth coming at the expense of increased costs and widening losses. The press release accompanying the accounts trumpeted an "operating EBITDA of £6.2m."  However, as set out in my previous posts this is a meaningless and misleading measure of profitability, excluding interest costs and payments to the catering joint venture, which are integral to the county's financial posi

The Johannesburg test of 2020 was Vernon Philander's final appearance for South Africa.  Throughout the series he was a diminished figure, never bowling badly but struggling to manage more than 4 overs in a spell and pulling up injured in that final test.  If I was Somerset chief executive I'd be checking his new contract very carefully. But that shouldn't detract from what has been an excellent test career with Philander taking his wickets at an average of just over 22.  What's more there's an argument the simple average doesn't fully capture just how good a bowler he was. The highly recommended redballdata blog ranks Philander as the fourth best bowler of the past fifty years on the basis of impact on the opposing batsman's average.  You can always niggle away at these type of exercises (although any list of bowlers that has Malcolm Marshall at the top is OK by me), but the real point is; any way you slice it Philander was  a supremely effective bowler