Sky now desperate to win cricket rights
ENGLAND cricket looks likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the UEFA decision yesterday to award monopoly TV rights for the Champions League and the Europa League to BT Sport in a £1.2billion deal.
The England and Wales Cricket Board are hoping to take full advantage of the TV football fall-out by going to market as early as this summer to sell their rights in various packages from 2021 onwards, including the flagship T20 tournament.
Sky will be that much more determined to win most if not all of that cricket content having lost out to BT Sport for the Champions League.
The ECB are also guaranteed a competitive tender as BT are still keen on more cricket rights, having spent £80million on Australian cricket over five years, primarily in order to cover the Ashes Down Under next winter.
Meanwhile, Sky are ditching their coverage of speedway’s Elite League. It is another hammer blow for the sport after a botched opening of a speedway-specific stadium in Manchester that is now in financial difficulty and the closing of the Coventry track. The one hope for British speedway is that BT will pick up the rights. MINISTER of Sport Tracey Crouch and FA chairman Greg Clarke (right) have reformed the governing body to a far greater extent than their predecessors. Crouch’s threat to withdraw £30m of grass-roots funding if the FA did not make changes, plus Clarke’s more diplomatic approach with his councillors, has led to a list of reforms which are on course to be passed by FA shareholders in May. The FA will bring in a 10-strong board with three women, term limits of nine years and published director remuneration. The Council will have 11 new members drawn from all quarters of the game replacing entrenched life vice presidents who will keep their perks but have no vote. Any future councillors will have to hold an active role in the football organisation they represent. JULIE HArrINGToN’S appointment as chief executive of besieged British Cycling will give the FA a considerable problem as to who takes over from her running Wembley Stadium.
roger Maslin and Lindsey Jackson, both more than capable of doing the job, were casualties of the FA redundancy process. The internal front runner for the vacancy, Liam Boylan, recently appointed stadium general manager, did not enjoy being made the scapegoat for the FA Cup final kicking off late last season because of the stage being cleared after Tinie Tempah’s performance. HARRY REDKNAPP was the other main contender for the England manager’s job when it went to Roy Hodgson. But he is not the ‘former England captain’ as Princess Cruises are labelling their celebrity speaker for one of their trips taking in football strongholds Southampton, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Genoa and Marseille.