Due to violations of the County Partnership Agreement
(CPA) and financial rules, the ECB has put Middlesex and the Middlesex Cricket
Board (MCB) under special measures.
The safeguards were put in place as a result of an
inquiry into the money given to Middlesex and MCB, which revealed the club had
been mismanaged financially for years. They consist of a business plan that
lasts through the end of October 2025, a reduction in payments to the club, and
a suspension of the points deduction in the County Championship, One Day Cup,
and T20 Blast. Every three months, the ECB will check in on the club and is
permitted to attend board and audit committee meetings.
The Covid-19 pandemic made Middlesex’s financial
problems worse, but they were actually caused by a 12-year-old pension payment
blunder that cost the club £500,000 to fix. The problem, which was identified
in 2021, resulted in a registered loss of £952,000 that year. According to the
published records, club reserves were down to £179,000 from over £2 million
before to the outbreak.
In contrast to the other 18 counties, Middlesex rents
their home pitch, Lord’s, from the MCC instead of owning it. This implies, for
instance, that they cannot offer non-cricket events at the location, which
other clubs use to generate additional cash from hosting international matches.
As a result, the county is overly dependent on money
from the ECB, which accounts for more than 70% of their total income, or £4.733
million out of £6.589 million, according to their most recent financial
statements. This includes their CPA as well as an additional £1.3 million as
payment for consenting to the staging of the Hundred.
Payments from the ECB to Middlesex will now be reduced
by £150,000, of which £100,000 will be suspended until October 31, 2025. Until
October 31, 2025, the points deduction—equivalent to the maximum points for one
victory in each of the County Championship, One Day Cup, and T20 Blast—is also
suspended.
The punishments handed down are more forgiving than
those received by Durham in 2016, which included immediate relegation from
Division One, a 48-point deduction for the following season and the loss of
Test status. While the situations are different – Durham required a £3.8million
bail-out from the governing body – Richard Gould and Richard Thompson, chief
executive and chair of the ECB, respectively, are more supportive of the
counties than their predecessors.