ECB’s chiefs set to share £2.1m bonus despite 62 job cuts last year amid Covid

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is set to hand out a bonus pot worth £2.1million to share amongst their top brass, with CEO Tom Harrison likely the largest beneficiary.

Those bonuses come in spite of the ECB's decision to streamline and cut 62 members of staff during the pandemic.

The bonuses come as part of the governing body's Long-Term Incentive Plan which is meant to be settled in 2022. As well as Harrison, Sanjay Patel is on course to receive a considerable amount given his role as managing director of The Hundred.

The ECB refused to confirm who else will be offered the cash bonuses, claiming that it would be in breach of the confidentiality of their contracts.

Harrison's salary was revealed to be £512,000 last year despite him taking a pay cut as a result of Covid.

Last November, the ECB announced that it was cutting 20% of its workforce due to the financial constraints of Covid. The governing body lost £16.5million in 2020/21 and their cash reserves fell from £73million to just £2million.

The ECB board has defended the huge bonuses, saying that it is standard in the industry to provide the cash as an incentive to stay on in the business.

Chair Ian Watmore said: "Long-term incentive plans are widely adopted across many sectors, including sports federations, as a way of rewarding long-term performance of executives and leaders as well as encouraging retention.

“The ECB’s LTIPs were created to take us through the negotiations of the last media rights cycle, the implementation of the Inspiring Generations strategy and the first two years of its delivery.

"The performance of the ECB’s leadership across the pandemic has been exceptional and they were among the first to commit to significant voluntary pay and incentive cuts in 2020. The LTIPs began in 2017 and will mature in January 2022. The board is considering what, if anything, will replace them from 2022 onwards.’’

The bonuses also come as an aside to the success of The Hundred rather than as a consequence of it, with the Long-Term Incentive Plan having been devised by former chair Colin Graves in 2017.

The new franchise tournament sold 510,000 tickets, 55% of which were to first-time live cricket buyers, while the TV audience between Sky and the BBC is said to have been over 16 million. Of those viewers, 57% are thought to be people who didn't watch any other 'live ECB' cricket.

Harrison himself spoke about the financial health of the ECB in the wake of Covid.

He said: "“[The losses last year were] punishing for the game. There’s an impact on our ability to do all of the things we wanted to do for Inspiring Generations, including infrastructure funds, and plans for increasing the [ECB] reserves have suffered a setback.

“This year has so far been a good recovery. Given limited crowds for the Blast and early season audiences there will still be a significant impact on the county game. But it feels like we are emerging from the Covid crisis.”

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