The COVID-19 pandemic might have a severe impact on the financial condition of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as it is set to lose over 300 million pounds if no cricket is played during the upcoming season.
The situation has been further worsened due to the refusal of the players to take a 20 percent pay cut as offered by the ECB in order to tackle the financial difficulties arising due to the pandemic, reported ESPNcricinfo.
The ECB’s chief executive Tom Harrison expressed his concerns on the impact of the pandemic in a letter to the Professional Cricketers’ Association chief Tony Irish.
“The pandemic is biggest challenge the sport has faced in the modern era although the full extent and impact of the pandemic on cricket is as yet unknown, it is already clear that it will be extremely significant,” wrote Harrison.
“We can only estimate the total financial impact on the game, which will not be clear for some time, but by way of offering an indication of the potential scale of the loss to the game, losing an entire cricket season – which is not an outlandish scenario – will cost cricket in England and Wales well in excess of 300m,” Harrison wrote.
Moreover, ECB’s reserves had gone down to 11 million pounds in 2018-19 from 73 million pounds in 2015-16. So a cricket less season is not something the ECB can afford.
“Our absolute priority in the face of this challenge is firstly, to ensure the public safety of our people – our staff, players and colleagues around the game, but secondly, that the cricket network remains intact, and emerges from this crisis in a state to resume our trajectory towards a bright future.”
In the letter, Harrison also mentioned that he himself will be taking a pay cut of 25 percent for the next three months at least.
Hence, Harrison expects the centrally contract players to understand “these circumstances” and thus agree to their offer of pay cut.
“Whilst the health of the nation is under threat, the future of our sport depends on every single one of us sharing the load right now.
“In light of this, I am encouraging the PCA and all professional players to support the recommendations the first-class counties present to you next week, which may very well propose a 20% reduction in salaries for April and May, with a view to revisiting this on a monthly basis until we have navigated through the crisis.
“I am hopeful that our players are able to contribute in rising to this unprecedented challenge. If we can all pull our weight in working together and come through this, then we will not only reinforce the truly inspiring spirit of the cricket family, but we will safeguard the future of our sport and the livelihoods of everyone who works within it,” added the chief