Reports that the ECB lost $100m are nonsense. The figure is much larger… Will Chance to Shine see any of the remaining money?
The WICB will definitely not see any of their $3.5 million, which was money for schools in the West Indies and the principle moral argument used by the ECB for doing the deal in the first place. But we knew that long ago. Stanford had privately refused to pay it before the start of the Series after becoming infuriated in the wake of the High Court defeat in London by Digicel, who maintained they had paid for sponsorship rights to any West Indies match. Before the allegations of fraud broke, Donald Peters, chief executive of the WICB, had told SPIN that he did not expect to see “another cent” from Stanford. Stanford may have rejuvenated cricket in the islands, but that good work is cast in a different light now: he was, allegedly, using money from investors whose bank accounts are frozen and that Stanford may never pay back. Stanford was a likely sponsor for the mooted English Premier League (EPL), touted as a rival to the IPL. That’s now off the agenda. As are hopes for England to crack the US TV market via the $20m games, which always seemed a long shot anyway.
But English cricket is not bankrupt because of this, right? No. The ECB have lost more credibility than money. But that could affect what money
they will be able to raise, particularly in the current financial climate. Vodafone pulled out of their 12-year association with England in December. The last deal had brought in £16m over four years. The problem for the ECB, in the current climate, is that the deals with their two other major sponsors NatWest and npower run out in 2010. This kind of sponsorship raises about £14 million, nearly 15 per cent of the ECB’s budget. There is also the loss of several million from Sport England, because the money is being diverted to Olympic sports. Clarke’s best defence to his detractors is that he renegotiated the TV deal for England home games with BSkyB last year. This is worth £300m over four years, a significant increase on the last deal, worth £220m. But some television rights experts say privately that the new deal could have earned more and been differently structured to allow some live cricket on terrestrial TV. They also say that Clarke’s deals for rights to England games fall short; that Australia get substantially more for their rights in India than England, despite England’s games being beamed into Indian prime time.
Do the ECB need all this money? Yes, to a point. Many of the 18 first-class counties are loss-making as individual businesses even after the £1.5 million a year subsidy they get from the ECB. In that
context the extra £50,000 of Stanford money, although useful, was not huge. All the counties have been taking advantage of the £1 m ECB subsidy each has been allocated in the last two years for adding floodlights at their grounds. Those are two large reasons why so many counties supported Clarke ahead of Lord Marland in his bid for reelection as ECB chairman last month. Clarke says that people have to accept that modern sport needs money to function. He might be right. But, argue critics, if you look at cricket as a brand, then protecting what gives it value – its history and traditions – has to be more important than short term millions. That is where the most damaging blows are to be landed on the current ECB regime.
What happens next?
With some irony the critics of the ECBStanford deal have got exactly what they wanted in the first place. There will be no more Stanford matches. (Although Clarke did say after the alleged fraud was revealed that a year ago the ECB were receiving plenty of offers for Twenty20 matches and that some were bigger than Stanford’s. If so, might they be resurrected at some point?) Clarke has said negotiations over the Champions League have begun again. SPIN, however, has been told that Modi will not allow England to come back in as a Champions League stakeholder as long as Clarke is in charge. We’ll see. The ECB have a reputation to rebuild. That will be easier if England start winning some matches. This summer provides an enormous opportunity for a giant leap away from the Stanford depression. England host the ICC World Twenty20 World in June and then Australia for The Ashes. Few people will keep beating them over the head with Stanford if they were to win either of those. APRIL 2009
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