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Twenty20 payday upsets Foxes Chief

Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson has criticised the England and Wales Cricket Board over their poor share of the profits generated from winning the Twenty20 competition.

Despite upsetting expectations to win the lucrative tournament by beating Nottinghamshire in the final at Trent Bridge last Saturday, Leicestershire believe they will receive only £2,000 at the most for their fourth successive appearance on the finals day.

That fee is in stark contrast to the £300,000 fee which Nottinghamshire are estimated to receive for being hosts of the finals day.

"Yes, we won £42,000 in prize money as winners, but under established conventions, that goes to the players," explained Davidson today.

"We had to fight to get £14,000 for taking part in the semi-finals at Trent Bridge when it was originally indicated we would get £7,000.

"When you then take into account the fact that we had to pay Trent Bridge for hospitality for our sponsors and had other expenses on the day such as hotels, then we estimate that we will come out of it with about £2,000 at best.

"I think most reasonable people will agree that's a ridiculously low amount for a club that won the tournament and played such a big part in the success of not only the day itself day, but the competition as a whole.

"It starkly contrasts with the US dollars 1million that Guyana, winners of the Stanford Twenty20 in the West Indies, received last week and indeed the profit enjoyed by Notts as the hosts of this year's finals day which we have estimated to be more than £300,000."

Davidson stressed: "We are happy to be corrected on these figures which have been drawn up based on ticket sales, hospitality and other income from the day.

"But I did request projected figures from David Collier, the ECB's chief executive, two weeks ago along with profit and loss reports for the two previous Finals days hosted by Warwickshire and Surrey. As yet, I have received no reply.

"Of course, Trent Bridge needs to be properly recompensed for hosting the day because they carry the overheads of running a major match venue, but not to the extent which we have estimated and not at the expense of other counties who have played their part in the success of the competition."

Davidson has previously criticised the ECB for what he regards as an unfair distribution of profits among the counties from Test match revenue and believes the Twenty20 figures are "symptomatic of the current malaise".

He said: "It is not widely understood, but the ECB is owned by the counties, both first-class and minor, and by the MCC. Collectively, we own the rights to stage international cricket and major matches in this country.

"The annual fee payment we receive is not a hand-out, but effectively a shareholders' dividend payment from the total net income generated.

"There is a major distortion to this dividend distribution system because of the arrangements which have been negotiated on our collective behalf between the ECB executives and approved by the ECB board on the one hand and those counties who host major matches on the other."

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