Somerset reveal financial results which led to Andrew Cornish exit

Failure to hit profit targets reportedly led to the CEO being ousted from his role at Taunton last year, despite the club hosting three World Cup matches

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Somerset have made public the accounts which reportedly influenced the departure of former chief-executive Andrew Cornish.

The Taunton club hosted three Cricket World Cup fixtures and the Women's Ashes Test in 2019, and hopes were high the schedule would deliver impressive results.

Profit targets were understood to stand at £600,000 (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), but they have confirmed they failed "to operate within the club's financial budgets".

The club's EBITDA actually stood at a shave under previous estimations, at £593,861. That figure drops to £231,795 as the comprehensive income for the year ending September 30, 2019.

Despite international cricket returning to the west country, that number is down on the 2017-18 income of £278,883.

Honourary treasurer Nick Farrant says among the reasons for the shortfall was a failure to maximise the delivery of the World Cup (they still generated £766,446 from the fixtures they hosted), poor retail returns and higher than anticipated costs relating to ground maintenance.

Rising player salaries, which rose to £2.67m during the period, catering costs and the loss of several senior figures behind the scenes are also believed to be behind the decline.

Pakistan batsmen Azhar Ali and Babar Azam joined Somerset as their overseas players for the 2019 season.

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Furthermore, the club also suffered the loss of Charles Clark, their former chairman who died in June, and the departure of ex-honourary treasurer Malcolm Derry and Richard Parsons, whose spell as president ended in January 2019.

Gordon Baird has been confirmed as the new chairman but the search for a replacement CEO remains ongoing.

For 2020, Somerset have sanctioned a root and branch review of their operations behind the scenes in an effort to ensure the mistakes during the last period are not repeated.

This year will see the club host one international match, with England facing India in a women's T20 on June 25.

The inaugural edition of The Hundred will see Welsh Fire women play matches at Taunton, while the club will be boosted by £1.3m from the ECB as part of the competition's introduction.

Farrant also says the club's share of profits from the World Cup, which were promised to the county, will also appear in the accounts of the 2019-20 financial year.