Lancashire make strong profit

Lancashire have announced a strong profit for 2007 but their chief executive, Jim Cumbes, has warned about the cost of staging international matches.

Despite the poor weather during last season, which had a severe impact on matches at Old Trafford, the club made a profit of £185,174 after tax. However, Lancashire also had to pay more to host their international games, a Test against West Indies and ODI against India.

"With much of the club's profit going towards increased staging fees, it limits the amount of funds available to invest back into the ground, which is going to be critical for the clubs with larger grounds, which of course includes Old Trafford," said Cumbes.

"Lessons must be learnt from the 1970s and 80s when international grounds fell into decline due to lack of profits from international matches which in turn led to lack of investment."

Lancashire are entering the first phase of a major redevelopment of Old Trafford, starting with a new outfield. Work will begin in August meaning Lancashire's home matches will be played at outgrounds such as Liverpool and Blackpool. Work will continue with the building of a new £12m conference and banqueting facility early in 2009.

"By and large it has been another very satisfactory year for the club both on and off the field," added Cumbes. "Cricket is our raison d'etre and we will continue to invest in that side of the business, but we are approaching a critical time in terms of our redevelopment plans.

"If we are to continue to stage top class international cricket, we must firstly secure funding to realise our vision of creating a ground with world class facilities. In that respect we need the certainty of international cricket over a long period of time in order to be able to create a programme of continued re-investment."