IT IS a cruel irony that Worcestershire County Cricket Club has announced the true cost of last year's summer floods as its New Road ground is again under water.

The club posted a loss of more than £1.1 million for the 2007 season as the June and July floods meant almost all the county's home games - including all the money-spinning Twenty20 matches - had to be moved elsewhere.

The financial blow was softened somewhat by insurance pay-outs and a variety of grants and donations but the pre-tax loss of almost £700,000 has still been labelled "the worst disaster ever to hit a county cricket club" by chief executive Mark Newton.

While his choice of the word 'disaster' may be suspect given that people lost their homes, livelihoods and, in some cases, their lives last summer, we agree with his general point. Imagine if a major football club such as Manchester United had suffered the same fate as Worcestershire. No home games for most of a season leading to a massive drop in match day revenues from ticket sales, merchandise, bars and the like. The loss would have been monumental.

And that is just what did happen to Worcestershire.

In a normal year the club expects to make a profit of about £50,000 - so last year was the equivalent of losing more than 13 years' profit in just a couple of months.

The financial challenge facing the County is enormous. But we are sure that administrators, players and fans alike will do their utmost to get the club back on track.