If club cricket is played for only one or two months at the tail end of the summer, then convincing firms to pay for a full season of support could be as tough an ask as bowling at Steve Smith in full flow.Ĭlubs will also have to address the issue of ground maintenance.
Others will hope that people’s generosity will extend to paying subscriptions when it still remains uncertain as to when the season or junior training will begin.Ī loss of sponsorship from companies reluctant to commit funds during such uncertain economic times could also remove vital revenue streams. Some clubs, such as Bexley CC in Kent, have asked members to pay a social membership fee of £35 to ensure that some cash is coming in. They will have fixed costs that they can’t possibly manage.” Perversely, this crisis may impact bigger clubs more than some of the smaller clubs in this country, particularly those that are multi-sports clubs.
Whether that means pruning them to some degree or negotiating with local authorities over things such as rates. We don’t know for how long we will not be able to play cricket, and clubs are going to have to manage those fixed costs. That’s a huge outlay when you have no idea when the season will start. “Balls alone at this time of year cost cricket clubs over £4m. “The biggest concern for the club game right here and right now is the management of cash flow and the consequences of having zero income while having fixed overheads,” he says. For Simon Prodger, the head of the National Cricket Conference (NCC), the immediate concern is ensuring that clubs remain financially viable and able to exist as entities once all this is over. If there is one certainty amid the chaos, it’s uncertainty. They have been in touch with me asking if there will be any restrictions on people just coming to watch cricket. A lot of those people are in their 70s and 80s so they’re in that ‘at risk’ age group. “You also have to think about the mental health issues that this will cause too – not just for the players who base their summer around cricket but also for the supporters who come to watch us every week. “Yes, there will be a huge hit for us financially as there will for every club in the country if this continues,” he says. And his concerns spread far beyond the field of play. With all cricket in cold storage until the end of May at the earliest, however, the club’s chairman Andy Worth, is taking a realistic view of that long run being stopped in its tracks. Sparsholt Cricket Club, nestled on the outskirts of Winchester in Hampshire, has been playing cricket at its Lock’s Lane ground every summer since the 1930s. It’s a similar story at the other end of the country. Shutting down the club’s finances at a time of year when club overheads are at their peak.
It covers a lot of our costs for things like insurance costs and balls, which are big outlays in spring.” This season, though, the registration night will be spent like every other night: in lockdown. “That kind of money is crucial in the early part of the season. “It’s the first really big gathering of the juniors in particular and it’s a night when we take anything between £2,000 to £3,000 in subscriptions,” says club president, Mark Dinkall. It’s one of the highlights of the calendar and, in the minds of many members who attend, it marks the end of winter and the start of something altogether more appealing. It’s the last Friday in March and Torrisholme Cricket Club, on the border of Lancashire and Cumbria, should be preparing for their annual registration evening. Enthusiasm for the season ahead has been tempered with a realisation that, in the coming months, a great many clubs could face a grim fight to simply keep their heads above water. This spring, though, has a very different feel. This is usually one of the busiest times of the year at club grounds up and down the country, as armies of volunteers and groundstaff prepare the outfield and wickets for the summer ahead. S port is hardly a priority amid an unprecedented global crisis, but, while cricket grounds soak up some welcome spring sunshine in perfect isolation, there are ugly storm clouds circling.