Leicestershire boosted by financial turnaround

Leicestershire's success in Twenty20 cricket in 2011, as well as the generosity of their supporters, has helped the club to record a profit of £294,000 for the year - a remarkable turnaround in the county's finances from 12 months ago, when they announced record losses of more than £400,000 and the auditors questioned whether Leicestershire could continue as a going concern.

Mike Siddall, the chief executive, said that increased gate receipts and prize money from Leicestershire's victorious Friend Life t20 campaign, as well as almost £200,000 received from private donors, had significantly bolstered the county's finances, despite them finishing bottom of Division Two in the Championship. Extra income from the ECB, following the lucrative visit of India last summer, and improved returns from commercial operations also contributed to the surplus. In total, turnover increased by £600,000 to more than £3m for the year.

"Increased ECB income from the India Test series has helped but we've also had donations from members," Siddall told ESPNcricinfo. "We've had a number of anonymous donors and in total we've raised getting on for £200,000 in donations from members - which is a remarkable total really. The members have really rallied round to help the club in its time of adversity and I'm very grateful for what they've done.

"A bit of success on the field also helps. Match receipts increased by £124,000, because we had a lucrative FLt20 quarter-final against Kent and we also had a full house for our T20 game against India in August. We got £60,000 prize money for winning the T20 trophy and the commercial team managed to bring in an extra £70,000-worth of sponsorship during the year.

"Winning T20 was brilliant for us," he added. "We got £60,000 prize money, we got £25,000 from the gate at Edgbaston for finals day and we also probably got about £20,000 for getting in the Champions League. So it was worth £100,000 to us and it came at the right time."

Siddall took over at the end of 2010, after a turbulent year that saw the departure of former chairman Neil Davidson and chief executive David Smith, and has overseen the county's recovery. The 2011 accounts include increased legal costs of around £40,000 as a result of settling disputes with Davidson and Smith, although savings were made due to the departure of Tim Boon as head coach. Former player Ben Smith has recently started in his position as the county's new batting coach.

The club is currently free of debt and has also succeeded in renegotiating with Leicester city council a covenant pertaining to any potential sale of Grace Road. Previously, Leicestershire were only entitled to £24,000 - the figure the club paid the council when it bought the ground in 1966 - should they wish to sell. That has now been negotiated up to £500,000, Siddall said, giving Leicestershire increased security in raising bank loans.

However, Siddall warned that there were still tough challenges for the year ahead. The visits of West Indies and South Africa for three-Test series against England this summer are unlikely to raise as much money for the ECB, which will affect county grants, while a one-day fixture against Australia at Grace Road may not stimulate the locals in quite the same way that India did.

"We know that we'll have £300,000 less income from the ECB this year," Siddall said. "Secondly we know we haven't got a sell-out game against India. Thirdly - are we going to win the T20 again?

"The bottom line is, it's going to be a difficult year. The board have set a break-even budget for this year, so there's a great big difference from £294,000 profit. We'll need to peddle extremely hard to get to that because it depends on a fair amount of extra commercial revenue coming in - and we're obviously doing our best to bring that in at the moment - but the economic climate is not exactly in our favour."

Siddall confirmed that the county will have Pakistan allrounder Abdul Razzaq back again for the FLt20, as Leicestershire look to defend their title, while negotiations are ongoing to bring former West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan in as overseas player for the full season.