Twenty20 payday upsets Foxes chief

Leicestershire chairman Neil Davidson has criticised the England and Wales Cricket Board over their poor share of the profits generated from winning the Twenty20 competition.

Despite upsetting expectations to win the lucrative tournament by beating Nottinghamshire in the final at Trent Bridge last Saturday, Leicestershire believe they will receive only £2,000 at the most for their fourth successive appearance on finals day.

"Yes, we won £42,000 in prize money as winners, but under established conventions that goes to the players," explained Davidson. "When you then take into account the fact that we had to pay Trent Bridge for hospitality for our sponsors and had other expenses on the day such as hotels, then we estimate that we will come out of it with about £2,000 at best."

He added: "I think most reasonable people will agree that's a ridiculously low amount for a club that won the tournament and played such a big part in the success of not only the day itself day, but the competition as a whole.

"It starkly contrasts with the US$1million that Guyana, winners of the Stanford Twenty20 in the West Indies, received last week and indeed the profit enjoyed by Notts as the hosts of this year's finals day which we have estimated to be more than £300,000."

Davidson stressed: "We are happy to be corrected on these figures which have been drawn up based on ticket sales, hospitality and other income from the day.

"But I did request projected figures from David Collier, the ECB's chief executive, two weeks ago along with profit and loss reports for the two previous finals days hosted by Warwickshire and Surrey. As yet, I have received no reply.

"Of course, Trent Bridge needs to be properly recompensed for hosting the day because they carry the overheads of running a major match venue.

"But not to the extent which we have estimated and not at the expense of other counties who have played their part in the success of the competition."