Warks profit from Champions Trophy hosting

Warwickshire have announced "improved financial results" for 2013, including a small operating profit and increased turnover. The club was one of the hosts for the Champions Trophy, which helped push yearly returns back into the black, after a £668,000 loss in 2012.

Although poor weather forced the Champions Trophy final to be decided by a 20-over match, the tournament was generally held to have been a success. Despite rain causing the abandonment an ODI between England and Australia later in the year, Warwickshire's turnover rose by more than £200,000 to £11.7m, with earnings before tax and other deductions almost doubling to £1.4m.

A depreciation charge of £1.4m on Edgbaston's redevelopment, which was part of the annual budget, left the club with a modest £4500 surplus - although that is itself a marked improvement on the previous year, when financial results around the circuit showed the effects of an extraordinarily wet summer.

Edgbaston was also the venue for FLt20 Finals Day, helping to make up for the loss of an Ashes Test, while the 2013 season saw Warwickshire return to the top of the rankings for ECB performance-related fee payments, given to counties in return for supplying players to the England teams.

Last year saw Warwickshire implement a Strategic Plan, which included becoming "the best cricket business in the world" as its mission statement. "The achievement of several objectives within the plan helped to deliver the improved financial results over the last 12 months," Craig Flindall, Warwickshire's financial director, said.

In 2014, the county will again host T20 Finals Day - for the inaugural NatWest Blast - as well as ODIs featuring Sri Lanka and India, plus an India T20, after Durham handed the match back to the ECB to reallocate.

Colin Povey, the Warwickshire chief executive, said: "The club has made good progress on many of the objectives set within the Strategic Plan and the way in which we delivered the ICC Champions Trophy matches made a lasting impression on all major stakeholders.

"The absence of Test Cricket once again in 2014 represents a further challenge before the return of an Ashes Test to Edgbaston in 2015. However, hosting India on two occasions and the changes to domestic Twenty20 cricket schedule, featuring more Friday night games, are great opportunities that we are looking to make the most of in 2014."