Lancashire county cricket club CEO Daniel Gidney was absolutely “gutted and devastated” after the postponement of the fifth and final Test between England and India on Friday. The series finale was called off just a couple of hours before the toss amid health concerns among India’s players following a coronavirus outbreak in their camp.
The postponement will definitely prove costly for the England and Wales Cricket Board, which gets much of its revenue from men’s Test matches and could be down a further 20 million pounds ($27.7 million) with no Test at Old Trafford, and also English county Lancashire, which misses out on a Test match and is not staging one next year when New Zealand and South Africa visit.
“Obviously there are significant financial implications. Obviously we have reputation issues as well, I mean, Old Trafford has a proud history of hosting Test cricket going back to over 100 years. We are absolutely gutted and devastated,” Gidney told Skysports.
“I feel for all our staffs, suppliers, stakeholders, partners and sponsors and our guests today.
“But above all the ticket holders, everybody who has spent their hard money amid the difficulties of the pandemic over the last few months, who have been desperate to watch a fantastic game of cricket and unfortunately they can’t do that and on behalf of Lancashire cricket club, I am truly sorry that those fans have been left so disappointed.”
Gidney admitted the situation was not in their control and promised a full refund to the ticket holders.
“..all the fans and ticket holders will get full refund, we are just working through all the details with ECB at the moment. I can just apologise, very, very challenging all the disruption and inconvenience caused to the guests and ticket buyers.
“It is very challenging to go four years without fans here for a Test match, we are a venue here of over a 100 years, so it is difficult.. something which is a bitter pill to shallow but here we are, that’s what we need to do.
“We need to make sure that the future games at Old Trafford, we do our absolute best for our customers,” Gidney said.
