Monday 3 October 2016 17:03, UK
With the news that Durham have been relegated from the County Championship’s top flight after accepting significant financial support from the ECB, a number of questions have been thrown up.
How did it come to this this? What now for Durham? Are any other counties in danger?
Read on as we endeavour to provide you with the answers to those questions and more…
Durham are believed to have debts amounting to around £7.5m, with the local council and the ECB among those owed money. This year alone, the ECB brought forward the payment of county clubs' annual fees to ensure that Durham remained afloat throughout the summer and also provided further loans to the north east club, reportedly worth up to £1m.
In addition to this, the ECB rescheduled the staging fee (£923,000) for the Riverside Test against Sri Lanka in May. Following a report in The Times, detailing Durham's debts and receipt of loans from the governing body in order for the club to remain viable this summer, the ECB released a short statement last week confirming the club may face sanctions.
While English cricket's governing body has provided Durham with the finances to help ease their financial problems, it has come at a cost. Given that a financial penalty would have been counter-productive in the extreme, the Riverside club have been relegated to County Championship Division Two and will start the 2017 season on -48 points. They have also been given a four-point penalty for next season's NatWest T20 Blast and a two-point deduction in the Royal London One-Day Cup.
The chief beneficiaries of Durham's misfortune are Hampshire. The south coast county were beaten by Durham in the final game of the season and, as a result, finished eighth in Division One - some 45 points behind Durham. That should have seen them relegated to Division Two along with Nottinghamshire but Durham's troubles have seen them handed a reprieve.
A change to the format of the Specsavers County Championship from next season - eight counties will make up the top division with 10 competing in the second tier - led to the decision that two clubs would be relegated from Division One with only one going up, rather than the two up, two down of previous years.
The result was that Kent, who finished second in Division Two, missed out on promotion. When the prospect of Durham being relegation became known, Kent fans could have been forgiven for believing their side would take their place in Division One. However, the ECB have stuck by their decision to relegate two sides and promote just one meaning Kent miss out.
As well as relegation and points deductions, Durham have been informed that their Riverside ground is no longer eligible to host Test matches, although they will still be allowed to apply to stage ODIs and T20Is.
From April 2017 until April 2020, the county must also adhere to a revised salary cap - determined annually - set by the ECB Board. That could see some of the county's big name players join Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick in heading for the exit. However, there is hope given that Ben Stokes, Keaton Jennings and Paul Collingwood have all recently signed new contracts to keep them in the north east.
Durham are by no means the only county with financial troubles - Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Glamorgan are among those known to have had similar problems. However, while the ECB has provided loans to other counties in the past, the amounts provided are dwarfed by £3.8m Durham will receive.
The issue for Durham is that while other clubs may have larger debt, they are also able to generate more revenue thanks to their location and through diversification - Lancashire's Old Trafford ground, for example, has staged both Rihanna and Beyonce concerts during 2016.
For now, while relegation will come as a blow to Durham, that they can be sure of competing in the County Championship at all next year should offer some comfort given the recent uncertainty. As for the ECB, they have delivered a strong statement that they will not - as Michael Atherton told Sky Sports News HQ - be the "lender of last resort."
