Beyond the Boundary:
Cricket and COVID-19
In part five, Tom Simmonds investigates how COVID-19 could cause a financial crisis at all levels of the game.
Not since the outbreak of war on the continent has cricket in England been so disrupted. With the cricket season typically well underway by now, question marks still hang over the very idea of cricket being played this summer.
The ECB told the DCMS committee that the lack of cricket could end up costing them £380 million with up to 800 days of professional cricket at risk, although they believe series against the West Indies and Pakistan could still be possible behind closed doors.
Counties will be feeling the pinch too with county cricket postponed until July 1, 2020 at the very least although the more lucrative T20 Blast will be prioritised should any cricket be possible with the controversial Hundred competition’s launch now confirmed for 2021.
It’s not just the professional game though as the recreational game has also been suspended with all cricket-related activities cancelled and no proposed date for their resumption. The idea that club cricket may not be played this summer is looking very likely leaving grassroots clubs in the same boat as the counties and national boards.
You can click through the timeline below to see how the landscape of cricket in England has changed throughout the pandemic.
The impact of these cancellations are likely to be felt by all organisations linked with the game and with the ECB at the top of the tree they are no exception.
On paper the next few months could cause a serious drain on the ECB’s funds, with potentially no income from ticket sales or other match day earnings and the current television deal could be extended a year to meet the contractual demands which would still mean the ECB end up missing out on a year’s worth of TV money.
With large financial support packages now confirmed for both counties and grassroots clubs, there is likely to be a further drain on resources, although some of the headache may be eased by the fact the England centrally contracted players have agreed a 20% pay cut for six months.
Team sports financial expert from Sheffield Hallam University, Dr Daniel Plumley believes this could stretch the ECB’s funds: “In the latest set of accounts (2017/18) cash reserves stood at £54m (down from £71m the previous year). They will not have huge piles of cash spare.
“The central grants to clubs will come under operating expenses so that will be budgeted for but if they do have to keep tapping into the cash reserves then based on the figures above it won't stretch that far across 18 different counties.”
The delay to the Hundred also won’t help according to Dr Plumley: “If there is no play in the Hundred this year then that would be another significant financial blow given the investment in it.”
The counties themselves will be dealing with an almost complete disappearance of all revenue streams bar their ECB grants.
Dr Daniel Plumley believes the majority of counties will struggle: “Our research (data up-to-date as at 2016) found that in some counties over half of their revenue came from the ECB grant and that only one or two clubs are capable of generating a profit without the ECB grants.
“If these were to be removed, only one or two would be self-sustainable. This is more worrying given the current situation as the ECB also don’t have a bottomless pot of money.
“There are some caveats, however. The test match hosting grounds and those that have differentiated their income streams outside of cricket fare considerably better than those grounds that don’t host test matches.”
Derbyshire Chief Executive, Ryan Duckett, is optimistic that a strong 2019 could see them through: “2019 was a positive year for the club, with additional prize money from reaching Vitality Blast Finals Day complemented by increased ticket and membership revenue and improved margins on our conference and events side of the business.
“However, the full impact of the current coronavirus situation is yet to be determined and we must be cautious.”
Moving further down from the counties, grassroots clubs are likely to run very close to going under this summer, although the ECB grants may do enough to save some. Robbie Book, chairman of the Club Cricket Conference told me: “It [the ECB grants] will be not enough in total, to actually make the difference for some clubs, but it will make a huge difference to other clubs.”
Book says that clubs need to be aware of other grants available: “What many clubs haven't yet realised is the government grants are actually much bigger than anything that ECB can do.
“Cricket clubs that fall into what are basically small business situations in that sector, the vast majority of them will pay rates to some council or other then they can get £10,000 straightaway.”
But Robbie Book believes clubs should look closer to home as well: “The ones that I think clubs should be really looking at are parents of the kids that have been coached at the club.
"It's very easy for a club to turn around and say, well, look I tell you what, you don't need to pay us this year. We'll be here next year and well, we're not going to ask you for any money because you haven't gotten it. It's much more difficult, but the right thing to do, in my opinion, to turn around and say look, we've been great for you for the last 20 years it's time you were really good to us.”
It’s not just playing organisations that will struggle, there’s a number of cricket charities that are being hit too. Harry Whiteley from London Cricket Trust said their plans have been hit: “The installation of non-turf pitches and net complexes has been delayed but we hope to get back on track before too long.”
But the financial impact is what is worrying most charity heads in this situation. Shahidul Alam (Ratan), CEO of Capital Kids Cricket in London, told us the scale of the financial impact both now and going forward: “We will lose about £60k-£70k if the lockdown continues until the end of summer and our staff are unable to provide our services and activities due to social distancing. And due to businesses suffering, finding sponsorship will be harder going forward.”
Suggestions have been tabled on how to finish the season, with the possibility of an English summer that only consists of the T20 Blast which may also be behind closed doors being considered for elite cricket whilst recreational cricket is suggested to be looking at winter indoor midweek leagues as a way of making sure some cricket is played this season.
Of course, this is all extremely flexible and there’ll be more important issues for the sport to face first, namely making sure the existing league pyramids survive until the eventual resumption.
Across this series it has become clear that cricket is in need of serious time, money and attention in the next few years to ensure its future is strong whether that’s in the shape of action plans for new communities, cutting costs for players or properly funding women’s cricket. It also seemed that plans appeared to be in place to implement some of these changes but in the post-COVID-19 world there is a danger that, especially where financial investments are involved, a lot of that planning may go out the window.
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