England face contracts cutbacks

The feared fall-out from England's refusal to play in Harare in the World Cup was made a reality yesterday when the England and Wales Cricket Board agreed to cut its expenditure for the year by £4m.

The upshot will be that county cricket and the grassroots of the game will have to undertake some severe belt tightening after the First Class Forum, meeting at Lord's, agreed provisionally to the reduction in the 2003 budget. It means fewer central contracts and as yet unspecified cuts in funding at counties as the English game encounters the early consequences of the withdrawal of the team from their World Cup opener against Zimbabwe in February, a decision which has resulted in the International Cricket Council withholding the English game's £2.3m share of profits from the tournament.

The England and Wales Cricket Board admitted the cuts from its 2003 budget were the direct consequence of its decision to pull England out of the Harare match, and in a statement said: "These cost savings affect all parts of cricket in England and Wales, ranging from the grassroots of the game up to the allocation of central contracts for the England team."

Although the decision has to be ratified by the ECB's management board at its next meeting on 24 April, resistance is not expected as the game starts tightening its purse strings in anticipation of a possible fine and legal action following the no-show in Harare. One cut is a proposed 30 per cent reduction in an intended special projects payment of £100,000 to the 18 First Class counties, although their annual fee payment of £1.3m will not be affected.

However, with only nine 12- month central contracts having been awarded to date, ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said: "It had been agreed that up to 20 contracts in all could be awarded, but the number of six- month, or summer contracts issued will be considerably fewer than 11. We have told the England selectors that they should be judicious in their awarding of contracts."

And insisting that the meeting was not hostile, Lamb continued: "We want to make these cuts as equitable as possible. We want to spread the pain throughout the game. The counties have been very supportive."

Any thoughts of employing a new full-time England team manager are likely to be shelved. Other measures that the ECB is believed to be contemplating include delaying or reducing substantially a contribution of around £2m to their staff final salary pension fund to fill a gap caused by the collapse of Stock Market values.

Lamb added: "It is regrettable that these cost savings need to be found, but they are part of the financial fall-out from the 2003 World Cup. But if all goes well and the World Cup money is repaid in full then we will be able to put the money back into those areas of the game where we have been forced to make these cuts."

The ECB has already had to agree to compensate the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in order to get them to stand by their agreement to fulfil a two-Test series and triangular one-day tournament here this summer.