• Old Trafford redevelopment and judicial review in costs
• Loss in line with five-year business plan, say county
Lancashire have reported a loss of almost £4m for 2011, meaning that in the year they won the County Championship outright for the first time since 1934 they also made unwelcome English cricketing history. The results are the worst recorded by a first-class county, beating the £2.1m losses incurred by both Lancashire and Warwickshire in 2010.
However in the annual report issued to members, Lancashire say that the loss of £3.96m is "not a surprise to the club and is largely in line with its forecast five-year business plan" – although the losses show again that they were not exaggerating when they said the long-running legal battle to secure planning permission for the redevelopment of Old Trafford represented a real threat to the club's future.
Lancashire have costed the judicial review forced by a rival developer at £520,000, and a further £1.8m of the losses come from the depreciation of assets that have been demolished since the redevelopment of Old Trafford began last autumn. They have not staged a Test since 2009 , but Lee Morgan, the county's finance and operations director, is confident that the situation will improve considerably later this year when tickets for the Ashes Test that has been awarded to Old Trafford for 2013 go on sale.
"The nature of this result is a continuing reflection of the difficulties faced with building a new stadium on an existing site," he said. "However, despite the difficulties faced we are still very much on course to achieve our goals and ultimately return to a vibrant and profitable cricket club."
Lancashire's players picked up where they left off last September by completing a six-wicket win in the traditional curtain-raiser to the county season against MCC, which is now played in Abu Dhabi with a pink ball.
Simon Kerrigan, the young left-arm spinner who played a key role in the closing stages of the Championship triumph, recorded match figures of eight for 96 as MCC were all out for 84 in their second innings, and Paul Horton's half century steered the champions towards a modest victory target of 152.