Northamptonshire have announced a loss of £98,113 last year – the club's first deficit since 1983.

The club's income showed only a slight fall, but expenditure rose by nearly £180,000 including an increase of £80,000 in the players' wage bill, reflecting the team's success during the 2000 season.

Chief Executive Steve Coverdale said: "It's ironic that our good results on the field should have had an adverse effect on our finances. The players earned and deserved significant bonuses for winning the Championship's second division title, while we continue to expand our youth development activities as an investment for the future.

"We always knew that last year was going to be difficult financially, and so it proved. Obviously there was no World Cup, which had been so beneficial in 1999, and the ECB's distribution wasn't increased by as much as had been anticipated."

Northants' first-ever floodlit National League match at Wantage Road, against Worcestershire Royals last August, cost more than £30,000 to stage, although Coverdale described the event as "a very successful venture and one of the undoubted highlights of the season."

He added: "We have worked hard over the past few months to review our systems, which will hopefully result in further improvements to our income, and to carefully monitor our expenditure.

"But the next couple of years are likely to be challenging financially for all counties."

© Northants' ARY