Loss of cricket during coronavirus pandemic costing sport £380m, says ECB chief

In charge: Tom Harrison
PA

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tim Harrison, who also appeared at the DCMS hearing, warned that no cricket taking place over the course of the summer would lose the game an estimated £380million as well as equate to 800 days of lost cricket across both the professional clubs and the ECB.

“We’re still working on the impact of Covid-19 on the entire game,” he said.

“No cricket this year is a worst-case scenario that could be as bad as £380million. That’s the worst-case scenario for us this year.”

And he also admitted that the sport was “staring at a £100m-plus this year whatever happens this year” even if international games are able to go ahead in the summer, which are the priority for the ECB because of the resulting broadcasting revenue.

But Harrison rejected the idea that The Hundred, which has been delayed by a year at great cost, was to blame for exacerbating both the ECB and cricket’s wider issues.

He added that the financial ramifications of The Hundred was “a drop in the ocean compared to the losses. It goes way beyond the impact of one competition. It’s the most significant financial challenge we’ve ever faced.”

“I understand there is significant resistance to The Hundred but that does not make it a bad idea. We’ll put even more effort into The Hundred after this.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT