Whatever the game, let’s forget ‘conquering’ new markets or devising yet more new formatsThere were murmurs of disquiet in the
England dressing room at Headingley last week and this time they weren’t about the top-order batting. They followed the news that a handful of
Cricket administrators were in line to share a £2.1m bonus, despite Covid cuts that had cost 62 jobs and reduced players’ salaries at every level of the game.
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In response, Ian Watmore, chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), pointed out that such incentives were “widely adopted across many sectors, including sports federations”. That executives at an emphatically not-for-profit organisation have no embarrassment about sharing a couple of million on top of their very generous salaries merits little more than a shrug and a c’est la vie. Bonuses are how you recruit and reward in business and banking, the two worlds from which sport now derives almost all its managerial talent.