ECB stands to lose 300 million pounds if no cricket happens due to COVID-19 outbreak

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) may lose over 300 million pounds if no cricket happens. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, chief executive officer Tom Harrison revealed that ECB would have to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak and that they must be prepared for it.

With talks about a pay cut of England players, Harrison informed that he was one among many ECB employees taking a pay cut. He will be taking a 25 percent pay cut for the next three months. However, he added that although the ECB is facing a big loss, the priority remains the well-being of the people, rather than any sporting event. He said,

The pandemic is the biggest challenge the sport has faced in the modern era although the full extent and impact of the pandemic on cricket is as yet unknown, it is already clear that it will be extremely significant.

ECB's reserves had gone down from 73 million pounds in the 2015-,16 seasons to only 11 million pounds by the end of 2018-19 season. Harrison shed some light on the long term effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the possibility of ECB losing more than 300 million pounds. He quipped,

By way of offering an indication of the potential scale of the loss to the game, losing an entire cricket season - which is not an outlandish scenario - will cost cricket in England and Wales well in excess of £300m.

However, he stressed the fact that the safety of staff members, players, officials, and colleagues was of paramount importance and no amount of money could replace that. He hoped that world order would be restored soon and the cricketers would have the opportunity to entertain people again.

Our absolute priority in the face of this challenge is firstly, to ensure the public safety of our people - our staff, players and colleagues around the game, but secondly that the cricket network remains intact, and emerges from this crisis in a state to resume our trajectory towards a bright future.

England's tour of Sri Lanka, South Africa's tour of India, New Zealand's tour of Australia, HBL PSL 2020 and IPL 2020 have all been cancelled or postponed. In fact, the Three Lions were called back from Sri Lanka as the pandemic began disrupting different walks of life.