The COVID-19 outbreak threatens to ruin the English international, domestic season.
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The ECB on Wednesday (April 1) announced a £61 million interim package in order to help the game survive while tackling the crisis.
Harrison expressed his concerns on the long-term effect of the outbreak in a letter to professional Cricketers’ Association chief Tony Irish.
"The pandemic is the biggest challenge the sport has faced in the modern era although the full extent and impact of the pandemic on cricket is as yet unknown, it is already clear that it will be extremely significant," he wrote.
As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, England’s centrally contracted players appear to have said no to the ECB’s offer of taking a 20 per cent pay cut, which was part of board's plan to make up for the losses it would suffer.
This, while ECB's reserves have gone down significantly in the last four years from 73 million pounds in 2015-16 to 11 million pounds in 2018-19.
“We can only estimate the total financial impact on the game, which will not be clear for some time, but by way of offering an indication of the potential scale of the loss to the game, losing an entire cricket season - which is not an outlandish scenario - will cost cricket in England and Wales well in excess of £300m,” Harrison wrote.
“Our absolute priority in the face of this challenge is firstly, to ensure the public safety of our people - our staff, players and colleagues around the game, but secondly, that the cricket network remains intact, and emerges from this crisis in a state to resume our trajectory towards a bright future."
In his letter, Harrison confirmed he'll be enduring a 25 per cent pay cut for the next three months so as to help the board come out unscathed from this period. And he expects the players to do the same.
“Whilst the health of the nation is under threat, the future of our sport depends on every single one of us sharing the load right now," he wrote.
“In light of this, I am encouraging the PCA and all professional players to support the recommendations the first-class counties present to you next week, which may very well propose a 20% reduction in salaries for April and May, with a view to revisiting this on a monthly basis until we have navigated through the crisis."
“I am hopeful that our players are able to contribute in rising to this unprecedented challenge," Harrison added. "If we can all pull our weight in working together and come through this, then we will not only reinforce the truly inspiring spirit of the cricket family, but we will safeguard the future of our sport and the livelihoods of everyone who works within it."
(Inputs from PTI)