County Cricket: The ‘Take That’ influence and how the ‘Hundred’ could change game

They discovered just one club, Glamorgan, would have made a profit without ECB income being taken into account. However, their position was improved as they had more than £11.4m of debts written off in 2015.

In the cases of five counties – Middlesex, Worcestershire, Kent, Derbyshire and Leicestershire – the average ECB incomes made up more than half of their total revenue.

While each of those clubs generated averages of less than £5.2m, the ECB’s financial support for other clubs – such as Surrey, Warwickshire and Lancashire – made up just a fraction of their income.

The study highlights that there are “isolated examples of clubs doing well” and that there is a “polarisation between the counties that host international cricket and those that don’t”.

Dr Dan Plumley, a senior lecturer in sport business management at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “Cricket is fairly unique in this country in the sense that the ECB is one of only governing bodies that gives central grant money to the individual clubs.

“But there is a reliance on that money.

“It is obviously great that the ECB provides it, it is one of their remits – they are doing their job in terms of looking after the county side of the game.

“But should they be looking at budgeting on the worst case scenario and look to become more sustainable as individual clubs?”

In a statement, an ECB spokesperson said they “will continue to do what is best for the health of the game in the long-term”.

The statement continued: “That does include seeking a financial return as well as investing in our first-class counties as local centres of cricketing excellence.

“Each of these will continue to play a critical role in developing talent for our national teams, building a bigger and more diverse following for all our domestic competitions and strengthening links with the wider recreational game.”