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Posted:
Tuesday 17th February 2009
Source: Stephen Birley
The face of top-flight cricket in the county may be about to
change on a grand scale with the news that the Inland Revenue
and Customs are set to conduct a sporting clubs project.
The HMRC are going to send a questionnaire out to all clubs that
play in the respective cricket league premier divisions around
the country. The warning of the imminent arrival of the
questionnaire comes from Brian Havill the Finance Director of
the ECB.
Questionnaires will be issued to clubs to establish details of
the number of staff and players that they employ/engage; the
arrangement for remunerating these individuals; and any other
expenses and benefits that these individuals receive.
It has long been felt that many clubs have been paying their
leading players in some form or another and now it seems that
the HMRC are going to be taking a long hard look at just what is
going on in various areas.
It is a contention of many in the game that the teams who have
the greater source of funds, field the better/stronger sides,
simply owing to the power of the pound! However, if this
practise is to be clamped down on then we may well see a much
changed playing field across the board with the teams likely to
prosper those who work off an ethic of developing youngsters
within their own club and create a local feel to their side.
What is clear that those clubs who have in the past been
apparently paying sums of money under what ever guises to
players, are going to have to be very careful in the future to
ensure that it is entirely above board for if they don’t then
they may find themselves in a great deal of bother in a similar
vein to a number of football clubs who were caught ‘hook line
and sinker’ when the HMRC conducted a similar investigation into
the running of semi-professional football.
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