Leicestershire Plan to Remain First Class

 

Leicestershire have no plans to go white-ball only but county must adapt to post-Covid world, says chief exec

SAM MORSHEAD - The Cricketer

Leicestershire have no plans to become a white-ball county any time soon, but chief executive Sean Jarvis has accepted that the club’s business plan will need to be adapted in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Outgoing ECB chairman Colin Graves said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph this week that it may be necessary for as many as one-third of first-class counties to give up red-ball cricket as part of a massive game-wide restructure to cut costs and enable sustainability, as the sport repositions itself post-coronavirus.

In comments which have sparked dissent among elements of the county cricket community, Graves urged the network to use the “opportunity” afforded to them to review its expenses and act “for the good of the game, not just you individually”.

Leicestershire are among the clubs Graves was referring to - a county with a strong T20 reputation but little by way of first-class success. However, Jarvis insisted there is no intention at the Fischer County Ground to follow Graves’ suggestion.

“No, we’ve discussed this many a time,” he told The Cricketer. “Leicestershire, for some reason, has often been labelled as the club that might do that but no, that’s not in our remit.

“Leicestershire’s reaction (to Graves’ comments) was one of an element of surprise, however we believe that we are well positioned to drive forward a cricket club that has very rich heritage and a real determination to succeed.

“We support the red-ball game as well as the white-ball game. We’re learning to cut our cloth accordingly and drive forward as a business as well as a cricket club.”

Each year, the ECB sends around 44 per cent of its income back into the cricket network - first-class counties, county boards and the recreational game. That equates to around £118million, £109million of which filters down in the form of annual payments.

It is unclear whether this pot of money will still be the same once budgets have been examined post-Covid - the first task for new chairman Ian Watmore will likely be a root-and-branch review of spending. The governing body faces a nine-figure loss as a result of the lockdown, abandonment of The Hundred, and absence of fans.

Leicestershire currently count central funding as a major revenue stream, and Jarvis acknowledged that they - and others like them - will have to embrace diversification to survive and thrive.

That might mean an increased focus on the staging of events, it could be development of land, one thing is certain: it relies on a nationwide economic bounce and return to social normality, both of which are far from guaranteed in 2021.

“Our dependency on the ECB has been high, and arguably the highest in county cricket. However, we are now formulating plans to make sure that our dependency is reduced,” Jarvis said. 

“We look at the facilities that we have - we own the ground, we own our pourage rights, we own our catering rights - and we have to utilise those as much as we can.

“We don’t want to make any redundancies, we are running a tight ship. We’ve seen an amazing amount of support from sponsors and members, who have donated and kept their funds in the club for this year. That has given us a fighting chance when we go into 2021.

“That said, we’ve got an awful lot of hard work to do over the winter, and we continue to look and reflect on what we can do, but we’ve got some great plans in place which should put us in good stead in 2021 and beyond.

“If central funding does get reduced then you’ve got to find the funding from elsewhere. You’ve got to be creative in your thinking and assertive in your thinking, and listen to what businesses and the public want around Leicestershire.”

The comments of an outgoing chairman with little more than a week of his tenure at the ECB remaining might be shrugged off as irrelevant by some within the game, but not Jarvis.

“In my opinion he has done an excellent job leading the ECB through the last few years, and one of the most turbulent periods with Covid that the sport has ever seen. His comments still carry gravitas,” he said.

“It’s not a case of taking his comments with a pinch of salt, of course we have to listen to them, he is an expert in the industry and has been for a number of years. You have to take them onboard and use them to drive forwards.

“The conversations I’ve had with other first-class cricket clubs is that they do try to support each other wherever they possibly can.

“As long as the clubs keep their houses in order and operate in the right manner, there should be no issue.”

Leicestershire remain hopeful they will not have to make any redundancies as a result of the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s furlough scheme expires in October, however, and difficult decisions could yet have to be made.

“We have used a bad situation to look at how we operate and reflect on what we do right and what we do wrong, and then prepare a plan to come out of the Covid situation better and stronger,” Jarvis said.

“You have to use opportunities like this, and try to find positives out of it, and we’re using it to reflect on what is good and what can be made better.”

Turning its cricketers part-time, however, is neither on Leicestershire’s table nor anywhere near it.