Warwickshire County Cricket Club has promoted former Finance Director Craig Flindall to a new role as Chief Operating Officer (COO) as it prepares for its biggest-ever programme of international cricket.
Flindall – who joined the club as Finance Director from Ernst & Young in 2010 – will oversee all stadium operations at Edgbaston, in addition to the Indoor Cricket Centre and the Edgbaston Foundation Sports Ground at Portland Road as part of his COO role. He will also continue to lead the club’s finance department and the Edgbaston Experience Limited conference, events and match day hospitality business, which reported an annual turnover of £6.5 million in the previous (2014/15) financial year.
Neil Snowball, Chief Executive of Warwickshire CCC, said: “Craig has been part of our senior management team for seven years, overseeing the financial models for our £32 million redevelopment project, in 2011, and the overall business in subsequent years where we have made excellent progress.
“We are now entering one of the most important business periods in the history of Warwickshire CCC, which includes hosting 28 days of major match cricket over the next three years, the start of the Edgbaston enabling development project later this year, and creating our stadium masterplan that will allow the club to plan for further development over the next 10 years.
“As part of this, Craig will play a key role in our newly developed executive team – consisting of Gareth Roberts as Commercial Director, Ashley Giles as Sport Director and myself – which will develop a new strategic plan to allow the club to flourish on and off the field.”
Craig Flindall, said: “Warwickshire CCC is one of the biggest sporting institutions in the West Midlands and we have very exciting times ahead with our major match programme and plans to build on Edgbaston’s reputation world class sports venue.
“I am very proud to be working at such a fantastic club and look forward to the challenges ahead in this new role as COO.”
Edgbaston’s major match cricket programme includes five matches in the ICC Champions Trophy, the first day/night Investec Test match and NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day in the coming season. Other highlights of the programme also include an Investec Test match against India in 2018, and an Investec Ashes Test match against Australia and five matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019.
