Manchester: The England Cricket Board (ECB) has set a budget of £61 million to help cricket withstand the financial impact of COVID-19.
According to the details, MCC, the First-Class Counties (FCCs), and their County Cricket Boards (CCBs) can take advantage of the newly introduced funding schemes. The application process has been started.
With revenues impacted across the game – from both cricket and non-cricket activities, the ECB Board today approved plans to expedite payments from a number of areas within its 2020-2021 planned distribution budgets.
Around £40m will be made immediately available through:
• Early release of three months’ (May-July) county partnership distributions to FCCs and CCBs
• The immediate availability of two years’ facilities maintenance distribution
– Funds available unfettered and not restricted to facilities maintenance expenditure
– A further £5.5m to be made available for counties who are not eligible for 2020-2021 ordinary facilities maintenance distributions
• Suspension of international staging fees for four months and waiving of international staging fees payable in 2020 if the match is not played as scheduled due to COVID-19
An extra budget of just over £20m will become available to the recreational game through a cricket club support loan scheme, grants through the “Return to Cricket” scheme, and a 12-month holiday on loan repayments for recreational clubs.
