Hampshire Cricket group chairman Rod Bransgrove has called for the England and Wales Cricket Board to provide support to counties with fewer financial opportunities in a bid to help “level the playing field”.<\/p>\n
The 76-year-old has been at Hampshire since 2000 and highlighted Sussex as an example of a club that could disappear if not helped by the governing body.<\/p>\n
Sussex have been hit with points deductions<\/a> for financial issues that recently led to their chairman standing down<\/a> from his role. <\/p>\n “I’m very conscious of the situation that Sussex find themselves in and I’m very sympathetic towards them,” Bransgrove told BBC South Today.<\/p>\n “There’s not only Sussex, there’s a few of them who have a very difficult job in balancing the books and have the odds stacked against them.<\/p>\n “Unless the national governing body comes to the table then I think we’ll lose counties and I think that would be a tragedy and not fair either.”<\/p>\n Bransgrove has been credited with playing a key role in developing Hampshire from the brink of insolvency to becoming one of the powerhouses in the county set-up. <\/p>\n As well as hosting Hampshire games in the regular season, the Utilita Bowl – which is celebrating its 25th year – is the home of the Southern Brave Hundred side and regularly hosts England matches and concerts.<\/p>\n In 2027 the venue will welcome an Ashes Test for the first time.<\/p>\n “I think it is quite difficult [for other counties] when you don’t have these facilities,” Bransgrove added.<\/p>\n “It’s very difficult for those clubs who don’t offer international cricket, Hundred or franchise cricket – they’re not actually working to the same financial model.<\/p>\n “I don’t want to get into a long debate about the ECB but I do believe that they should be getting more support from the centre, not being told that they have to diversify their business. I think that’s completely wrong.<\/p>\n “The ECB was set up as that diversification to benefit from the international cricket that England play an awful lot of these days for a lot of money.”<\/p>\n