County Ground economics

When the Indians walk into the centre of the County Ground in Northampton, they won't be surprised to see themselves surrounded by advertising hoardings. They are India, the rock-stars of cricket, the centre of the sport's economy. Except that here, the brand names around them are not multi-national giants falling into the their favourite big-event sponsor slots - mobile phone, fizzy drink, apparel, electronic giants. The hoardings are an expression of cricket's micro-economy, the engine which drives the grassroots county game in England, where local loyalties are deep-rooted, investments and sponsorships are hard-earned and therefore must be carefully spent.

Along with the ECB's major national sponsors and a large regional steel merchant, the County Ground is ringed by the names of a local glazier, jeweller, video production company, coach hire service and a brewery that manufacturers a famous ale called the Old Speckled Hen.

In an economy trying to stay buoyant, CEO Mark Tagg says, the first hits to the bottomline come from hospitality cuts, so there is some fierce paddling across all smaller counties to stay afloat.

The County Ground began as a multi-sport venue, with a Victorian patron Alfred Cockerill sowing the seeds in the ground himself, to grow the grass over the 12 acres that would eventually become the turf for football, cricket, lawn bowls and tennis. The tennis and the bowls have now disappeared and Northampton Town football club moved away in 1994.

The County Ground must still be multi-venue and the cricket club hosts conferences, events, parties and weddings, like those held at the Indoor School where the Indians turned up for their indoors nets on Friday. Domestic cricket is tough business and it must keep innovating. "Fundamentally, we try to break even every year and put whatever we earn from various sources, into the cricket," Tagg said.

In April this year, Northants became the first county to acquire an "endless pool" for its Sports Science and Sports Medicine department, that can be by used athletes of all kinds, for training, conditioning, injury management and rehabilitation. "I want us to be the best non-Test venue in England, with the best coaches, the best pitches, the best sport science and medicine centre," Tagg says.

Northamptonshire is one of the "youngest" of English counties, making its Championship debut in relative yesterday of 1905. It was also the year when Las Vegas was established as a town. There is an amusing synchronicity in all this: proudly emblazoned over the home and away dressing rooms at the County Ground is the logo and branding of Aspers, of one of Northampton's four casinos.