Clubs to bear the brunt of Zimbabwe boycott fallout

The financial ramifications of England's refusal to play in Zimbabwe during the 2003 World Cup continue to be felt, but a report in the Daily Telegraph claims that the brunt of the cutbacks caused by the loss of income will fall on club cricket.

Barrie Stuart-King, chief executive of the Club Cricket Conference (CCC) and a member of the ECB's recreational advisory group, told the CCC's annual dinner that central funding to clubs was set to be cut to a far greater extent than it was to the first-class counties.

He also revealed that a deficit of between £2-4 million had been unearthed in the ECB's pension fund for staff and umpires.

"The reasons for the cut include the uncertainty over the fine yet to be imposed for the England-Zimbabwe fiasco, estimated at £1.3 million, and the recently discovered black hole in the ECB staff and umpires' pension fund," Stuart-King explained. "Neither has anything to do with recreational cricket."

And he delivered a stinging attack on the way that the funding was effectively controlled by "18 private members' clubs" - the professional counties. "The ECB's idea of 'one game' is a joke," he said, but he admitted that the lower levels of the game were powerless to do anything but accept their fate.