The windfall generated by the sale of shares in the eight Hundred franchises may have saved as many as six first-class counties from imminent crisis and possible collapse, according to an expert in sport finance who co‑wrote a new report into county cricket.
The Leonard Curtis cricket finance report analysed the 18 first-class counties over a decade, identifying a “yawning gap” between the most successful clubs – with Surrey by some distance the most profitable – and the less well-off. Of the £306.1m generated in 2023 just three teams – Surrey, Lancashire and Warwickshire, with income boosted in all three cases by hosting Ashes Tests that year – were responsible for 44%. By contrast the three poorest counties – Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire – between them generated just 5.56% of the total.
