World Cup profits to fall short of target (3 April 1999)

3 April 1999

World Cup profits to fall short of target

Mihir Bose

The cricket World Cup, which starts next month, will not make the profits originally forecast and will not come anywhere near matching the financial triumph of the previous tournament on the Subcontinent.

Buoyed by the success of India and Pakistan, who made some £30 million each in 1996, tournament director Terry Blake had projected that this year's event would realise a profit of £25 million. However the figure is now expected to be between £6 million and £10 million less.

Blake decided that the cup would not have a title sponsor, which brought in £8 million from Wills alone last time, but that as at the Olympic Games there would be a number of sponsors. Blake wanted eight but he has had to settle for four - NatWest, Vodafone, Pepsi Cola and Emirates - each paying about £2 million, although Emirates are paying partly through free air tickets for travel.

The hard-working Blake appears to have suffered from the strain of trying to follow in the footsteps of the extraordinarily successful last World Cup, although the fruits of that success went almost wholly to the Indians and the Pakistanis, as England and the other Test playing countries were on a guaranteed figure of around £150,000 for taking part and actually made losses.

I understand that Blake, who is also marketing director of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has had to retire from the fray, albeit temporarily, due to ill health. Blake has been away from his job for a couple of weeks, during the crucial run-up to the tournament.

Michael Browning, the event manager who has effectively taken over from Blake, will say only that Blake is unwell but I understand that he is suffering from nervous exhaustion.

Browning, a feisty Australian - he turned in a profit at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, a first - admits that the original projections were unrealistic but takes comfort from what has been achieved. England will keep half of £34 million from broadcast fees and sponsorship and all of a further £11 million from ticketing and merchandising. This means after providing expenses of £18 million for staging the event, the England and Wales Cricket Board will bank a profit of £10 million. Not as much as the Indians and Pakistanis made, but then the rules of the money game were different.

Browning said: "Nobody would disagree that the sponsorship has been disappointing but member countries will still get more than ever before."

While the ECB will not say when Blake will return to English cricket, Dean Riddle, who works as fitness consultant, is staying put. The New Zealander brought into the England set-up by physiotherapist Wayne Morton is unqualified as a physio and questions have been raised as to whether the ECB could get insurance cover for him.

But ECB spokesman Andrew Walpole made it clear to me that they have no worries on this score. Riddle, who works under Morton, has an excellent pedigree having worked for the Great Britain and Leeds rugby league teams.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)