Division Two cricket club Northants has asked the England & Wales Cricket board about financial help, but has "denied reports" that it requires an emergency loan, according to the BBC. The club declared a loss of £305,636 last year, and a Cricinfo report claims it now needs £500,000 ($778,700) to meet "urgent financial obligations." Northants CEO Ray Payne said, "We've gone to the ECB asking what financial support is available." Payne denied the claim that Northants had "asked for an emergency loan from the ECB, and said the club is in the first year of a three-year plan to try to make it more sustainable." Payne: "It's not an emergency loan, it's about longer-term cashflow and ensuring the losses reported last year are not reported this year. It's not do or die for the club, it's about what support is from the ECB going forward." Cricinfo also claimed the club was "looking to move away from Wantage Road," its home since 1905. Payne said that recent investment in the ground, "plus a desire to host more non-cricketing events, showed they were not thinking about moving." He added, "We're certainly not moving grounds, I don't really know where that idea has come from" (BBC, 8/4).
