ECB reports £16.1m loss with cash reserves down to £2.2m due to impact of Covid

News

News Desk
May 11, 2021

The England and Wales Cricket Board has reported a loss of GBP 16.1million for the past financial year, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic helping whittle the organisation’s cash reserves down to just GBP 2.2million.

The ECB’s financial results for the year ending January 31 make for sobering reading given expectations that the previous annual profit of GBP 6.5m would increase significantly.

In 2016 the ECB reported cash reserves in excess of GBP 70m, but that figure has plummeted sharply over the past five years to its current slender level.

Cricket as a whole in England and Wales has accrued revenue losses of more than GBP 100m, although that outlook is still better than the worst-case scenario had a full men’s international programme as well as one women’s series not been salvaged in a bio-secure bubble.

Scott Smith, chief financial officer at the ECB, said: “This has been a challenging year, but by being able to stage international cricket and by taking decisive action early in the pandemic, we have been able to support the network and avoid a far worse financial scenario.

“There remains considerable uncertainty over the year ahead, but we hope that delivering another full summer of cricket – and with crowds beginning to return from next week – we are able to protect the revenue we need to invest in growing our game.”

ECB revenue fell by GBP 21m to GBP 207m, with the postponed launch of The Hundred and the associated costs of setting up and maintaining the bio-secure international bubbles cited as factors.

The financial statement notes: “This fall in revenue and profit reflects the significant impact that Covid-19 has had on ECB’s finances due largely to the postponement of ECB’s new competition, The Hundred, until 2021 and the additional costs of creating bio-secure environments to host international cricket in a pandemic environment.”