Essex County Cricket Club are rumoured to be facing a six-figure loss this year, with some opinions suggesting a figure of £300,000.

Essex's Chief Executive David East stated last week, "We cannot quote an exact figure because we have not yet reached the end of our financial year but it is true to say that there is likely to be a significant loss this year."

Offering an explanation as to why the game now finds itself with its financial difficulty, the former Essex wicket-keeper said: "English cricket has been going through a difficult time for some years, there has been some pretty negative press comment with questions about how the England team is being handled and that has a percolating effect''.

However, East remained confident that the monetary problems are only a short-term issue adding, "The negativity has a knock-on effect throughout the entire game but now I believe that we are getting a positive resurgence of interest.

''We rely very heavily on the success off the England international team because so much of the central revenue gets generated as a result of Test match cricket."

Addressing the more parochial problems affecting Essex, East continued, "From a membership aspect, it does not help that the way the fixtures are scheduled often means that there is no weekend championship cricket because so many games are finishing virtually in three days.

"That really does not help the situation and I use the analagy sometimes that if you owned a sandwich bar, you wouldn't close at lunch-time.

"We at Essex are definitely not happy with the fixture situation but we are locked into a system which means that the First opportunity we will have to address that will be for the 2003 season.

''Our membership has been undergoing a worrying trend of single figure percentage decline for a while but we are hoping that we can turn that around next season.

"We have now achieved First Division Championship status, we have an attractive fixture against the Australian Tourists, another floodlight match plus we have been able to retain all three Cricket Festival weeks.

"All these are positives and, hopefully, we will be able to not only stabilise the membership, but increase our figures once more."

It is not only Essex that are facing a loss with inferences that only one county will break even this year.

East said: "The last two years have been a difficult time for us all although last year was partially underpinned by the revenues generated from the World Cup".

Analysing certain aspects of the club's expenditure, he said, "The biggest cost centre is the players and we are trying to be as prudent as we can with our playing staff.

''You have to protect yourself and key positions with a strong squad of players to provide adequate cover.

"We still have a comprehensive second XI programme and you need players to compete in that but all of our players' contracts come up next year and that is obviously one aspect of the club's finances that we will be looking at extremely closely.

"We also commit ourselves for a substantial six-figure sum to the support of the Essex County Cricket Board on the recreational side and embedded in that is our cricket development programme."

That last item is a considerable commitment and hopefully the county will reap the full rewards with a harvest of youngsters such as James Foster, Stephen Peters, Andrew McGarry et al forming the nucleus of the first team line-ups in the years to come.

Asked for an overall view on the financial state of the game in this country, East sounded an encouraging note. "ECB Chairman Lord McLaurin and Tim Lamb, the Chief Executive of the ECB are putting very high priority on recruiting the three new sponsors for the three major competitions and Terry Blake, the ECB Commercial Director, is very upbeat about the situation.

''There are a number of parties interested in the properties that are available and there is good reason to be bullish that sponsors will be in place for next year.

"I am hopeful that Essex supporters will back the county in what promises to be an attractive and exciting season ahead."

Exciting times: Essex County Cricket Club Chief Executive David East is hoping that the club's supporters will back the county in the 2001 season.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.