Glamorgan reveal £2.5m compensation from ECB for not staging Tests

Glamorgan have confirmed a compensation payment of £2.5m from the ECB in exchange for not applying to host Test matches for a five-year period between 2020 and 2024.

Overall contributions from the ECB amounted to nearly £5.2m - a figure which also includes the annual share-out to county clubs from international proceeds, and an additional £1m payment from ECB reserves that all counties received in the past year. The total sum is thought to be a record ECB payout to a county.

The revelation, shown in the county's annual accounts, comes at a tense time for the first-class game with an emergency meeting of county chairmen scheduled for March 26.

Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, is under scrutiny after it emerged that 'compensation' payments could be habitually paid to some Test-hosting clubs in the years they did not stage a match despite the policy having not been discussed at Board level.

It remains to be seen whether other counties will also be identified as having been promised similar sums.

Bob Warren, the Sussex chairman, has written to Graves, saying: "The ECB policies are, taking into account the way matches and money are being distributed, going to produce eight super-counties with dire effects for the rest of us."

Glamorgan said of their financial support: "Following discussions with the ECB the club decided not to apply to host Test matches during the 2020 to 2024 period in return for a compensation payment of £2.5m. The Club has agreed that if it wishes to host Test match cricket in the future, it will repay this sum on terms to be agreed with the ECB.

"This formed part of the Club's strategy to become the white-ball venue of choice which resulted in the successful allocation of international T20s and ODIs and the appointment of the SSE Swalec as a venue for the ECB's new T20 tournament."

The appointment of Cardiff as one of the venues for the ECB's speculative new T20 tournament was not without controversy as both Taunton and Bristol had ambitions to share the south-west venue and, in the case of Somerset, have expressed the belief that they were given reason by the ECB to expect this would be the case.

Glamorgan, meanwhile, are nearly out of the financial woods. At their AGM on March 28, they will announce an EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation and Amortisation) profit of £4.146m.

The statement read: "Since 2012 the Club has made EBITDA profits of £4.0m, before debt write-offs and before this recent agreement with the ECB. These profits have been delivered through successful hosting of a number of high profile cricket events, including two Champions Trophies and an Ashes Test match, alongside very close control of costs.

The debt burden, not so long ago a crippling £15.1m, which came close to driving Glasmorgan into bankruptcy until the chief executive, Hugh Morris, negotiated a way out of the mess, has been reduced to £2.5m.

Glamorgan concluded: "The Club is very focused, alongside a close partnership with Cricket Wales, upon developing the game of Cricket in Wales, producing the highest quality players, and providing top quality entertainment for audiences within Cardiff and around Wales. The sporting, social and financial impact of these aspirations for Wales could be enormous."

Durham are another county who might look askance at the situation. They were relegated at the end of the 2016 season, and suffered other sanctions, in exchange for a £3.8m bale-out by ECB - another county that made the heady rush towards Test status and suffered financial hardship in the process.