Warwickshire's accounts for the year to 30 September 2020 are available  here These are the first county cricket club accounts I've seen which cover the period of the coronavirus pandemic.  I've covered previous Warwickshire accounts, 2019   2018   2017 This post continues the analysis and considers whether there's a future for the counties in general and Warwickshire in particular.  As it's quite a long post I'm starting off with a summary. Summary Given the  pandemic, Warwickshire's 2020's results weren't too bad.  The board is confident the club can navigate 2021 and as I believe Warwickshire is one of the weaker counties financially I'm increasingly optimistic most counties will get to 2022, perhaps a little battered, but basically intact.  But if the virus results in reduced crowds for 2022 (and beyond?) continued financial hardship will take a toll.  Problems may be particularly marked for test match staging counties who have budgeted o...

This is a post on the ECB's financial statements for the year to 31 January 2020.  Previous posts on the ECB's accounts are   2017    2018 2019   The Mystery of the W orld Cup Payments  The 2020 accounts show a profit for the period of £6.9m.  This is disappointing, for a year that included an England World cup and an ashes series.  You'd expect a substantial surplus to fund other, less profitable, years.  But the strategic report for 2020 provides a (partial) explanation for the lack luster performance. " The group's administrative expenditure at £164m was an increase of £22m as compared to the prior year at £142m, the increase was largely due to the £1m paid to each of the Counties in respect of CWC 19. " That's a pretty good reason isn't it?  The ECB has distributed a share of its revenues from the cricket world cup to the first class counties, explaining the low profit for the period.  It's such a good reason the ECB have used ...

This is a post on the ECB's accounts for the year to January 2019.  My review of the 2018 accounts is here and of the 2017 accounts is here .  The ECB had income of £172m in the period and costs of £168m, leaving it with a £4m surplus. The ECB had an accumulated surplus at 31 January 2019 of £10.5m.  This is a big reduction from the £70m of reserves held at January 2016 and is, to a large extent, caused by additional payments to the first class counties that, in my opinion, were made in exchange for the ECB assuming  control of domestic cricket in the UK.  So Is The ECB In "Difficulties" There was an interesting piece by George Dobell in cricinfo suggesting the ECB was experiencing cash flow difficulties.  As regular readers will know I don't like the way the ECB runs English cricket and the idea of Colin Graves and Tom Harrison reaching down the back of the sofa for emergency funds is appealing.  But I don't really think it's true. ...

Warwickshire recently released its accounts for the year to 30 September 2018.  I commented on the accounts for the year to 30 September 2017  here  and this post looks at the 2018 accounts in more detail. On the face of it things are grim.  Although the club tries to focus attention on something called "operating EBITDA", the accounts show a loss of £1.5m for the year, even worse than 2017 when the county lost £0.9m.  The year on year losses take a toll on the financial condition and the Balance Sheet shows the club has liabilities £2.5m in excess of its assets. The loss for the period is maybe not quite as bad as you would think as it includes £1.5m of depreciation which is effectively an accounting measure of the cost of replacing the existing stands etc.(See my previous post if you want to read about depreciation.)  Of course we won't have to do this for years to come and you might argue that a more accurate figure would replace the depreciatio...

Colin Graves did an interview with the BBC on the 14th May.  As well as blethering on about the 100 he said something interesting about the subject of payments to Glamorgan  for not bidding for test matches . " Graves said: “No payments have been made to counties at all, full stop. I floated an idea talking to four or five county chairmen, that would need to be agreed by the board to go any further. No payments have been made. No payments have been promised. End of conversation.” [Quote taken from the  Guardian ] This is a bit embarrassing for me.  In my previous post on Glamorgan I wrote :  " Glamorgan have accounted for the full £2.5m non - staging payments as income (see page 8 of the accounts).This would only be appropriate if they were assured the payment would be made.   And although the years covered by the payments are 2020  - 2024 it seems Glamorgan have already  received some of the cash.  It's only I guess but I w...

I have only seen two days cricket at Cardiff.  One before the ground was modernised and the other the Anderson /  Panesar / Rorke's drift ashes game, but not the final day, sadly.   I don't really follow the county but from what I can see this is the  history  of the redevelopment and why it is causing such controversy in 2018 . In 2007 Glamorgan began work on a £9.5m redevelopment of its Cardiff ground, financing coming from Allied Irish Bank ("AIB") and Cardiff Council ("CC").  The sad fact was  Glamorgan, like other counties who redeveloped at the same time, couldn't generate enough cash to pay the financing costs on debt incurred.  Glamorgan's plight was particularly desperate, in part due to bad luck and weather and, perhaps, because there is limited enthusiasm for cricket in Wales. By 2015 Glamorgan CC was in a desperate state, the £9.5m million borrowed had swollen to £16m and there was little prospect of it ever being paid...