DENNIS AMISS, the retiring chief executive of Warwickshire, has defended the counties who stage Test matches against an increasing swell of discontent from the non-Test counties, only one of whom has announced a profit in the last financial year despite record income to the ECB from the England-Australia series last summer.

The apparent imbalance is stark. Profits reported have included £750,842 by Warwickshire, a record £580,164 by Lancashire and £96,776 by Nottinghamshire, all hosts of memorable Tests in the Ashes series. By contrast, Yorkshire, who did not have a Test match in 2005, lost £1.2 million.

Other glaring deficits were recorded by Sussex (£631,366), Kent (£310,000), Derbyshire (£215,000) and Leicestershire, who announced a £94,000 loss this week. Only Worcestershire have bucked the trend by making a profit of £50,000.

Amiss, speaking to The Times while observing the Test series in India in his capacity as chairman of the England Teams Management Group, said that the “smaller” counties failed to appreciate the huge expenditure that is necessary to keep Test grounds up to the standards expected.

“What they have to realise is that if the Test-match grounds don’t make big profits in an Ashes series it becomes very difficult for us because the surplus has to last us for three years,” he said.

“Take, for example, Edgbaston’s Sri Lanka Test this year. We shall sell perhaps three of the five days compared with four of the five last year. It would have been all five, no doubt, if the game had lasted that long.

“In 2007 we don’t have a Test because it is our turn to stand down, so in that year we are going to lose a million pounds. That’s what the overheads on maintenance and salaries will cost.

“If we don’t invest in our Test grounds, we are not going to get the public to come. And if they don’t come, then the non-Test grounds are going to suffer even more because the distribution at the end of the year will be reduced.

“The income comes mainly from televising international cricket and tickets. Our staging agreement with the ECB produces more for the central pot than any ground except Lord’s. Our agreement specifies a guaranteed amount and also a ‘super-profit’ when we make one.

“The non-Test grounds have a budget; they know what they are going to get from the centre. Yet they still lose money. That can’t be our fault. I do admit, though, that the playing field has to be level when it comes to signing players. We need to look at a salary cap. In fact, Warwickshire and other Test grounds proposed that a few years ago, but they (the other counties) rejected it.

“We don’t want a battle. We are doing our best and we’ve been able to keep up the distribution because we have generated a handsome profit. We gave about £1.6 million back to the board this year.”

Amiss estimates that, since 1994, Warwickshire have spent £6-7 million on Edgbaston and his successor will take responsibility for an £11 million project to rebuild the pavilion, thereby expanding capacity by a further 2,000 to 27,000 and providing new dressing-rooms, media facilities, more spacious spectator areas, proper facilities for the disabled and better catering outlets. The alternative is that grounds gradually disintegrate.

However, the clamour from the smaller counties continues. Before Leicestershire’s annual meeting on March 27, Neil Davidson, the chairman, did not waste the opportunity to point out the differences between the haves and have-nots, nor his opinion that it is the ECB management board that is to blame.

“There is a considerable tension within the game surrounding the distribution of revenue, but to date the new streamlined ECB board has resisted calls from a number of chairmen for an independent audit and analysis of international match hosting arrangements,” he said.

The ECB reduced its distribution by £65,000 per county last year as part of its five-year plan, but Davidson believes that it was unfair. “The ECB owns the right to stage international cricket in this country and therefore the revenue streams generated should flow to the members of the ECB as a whole, for the good of the game, not just for the benefit of those who are privileged to stage such international matches,” he said.

Davidson added that 2005 was a transitional year for Leicestershire, however, and hopes the club will at least break even this year.