The Bermuda Cricket Board have revealed that they will soon make public a breakdown of how they are spending their $11 million grant from Government.

In light of the Bermuda Football Association’s decision to include a comprehensive financial statement in their $36 million strategic plan released last week — detailing everything from staff salaries to the amount they plan to spend on upgrading local fields — The Royal Gazette approached cricket’s governing body to ask why they had not adopted a similarly transparent approach with regards to their sizeable chunk of public funds. While it is understood the BCB are required to account for their spending both with the Sports Minister and the Auditor General, at no time since the grant’s announcement in October 2005 have the public been shown exactly how their money is being spent.

BCB officials responded to the Gazette’s questioning by saying that they did initially meet with representatives from all 16 cricket clubs to outline how they planned to invest their new-found wealth.

Requests for the exact date of that meeting to be disclosed had not been answered by press time, however.

But Board secretary Marc Wetherhill said yesterday they had always intended to release their financial statements — insisting the BFA’s actions had in no way persuaded them to do so or forced them to bring forward the intended date of release.

“Having conferred with the Board’s executive committee, I can confirm that there was a meeting between the Board and its affiliates soon after the $11 million grant was announced in which we provided thorough details of where the money would be spent.

“While we applaud the BFA’s decision to release their proposed figures at the outset, I’d like to make clear that this is not the reason why we are going to be making our financial statements public.

“We always intended to do so. At this moment in time, we are currently waiting for the Auditor General’s office to complete their audit for the last financial year. Once that is done we will once again meet with the affiliates to show them the breakdown and answer any questions or concerns they might have.

“After this, we will be making those financial statements available to the media to report their contents as they see fit.”