TERRESTRIAL RETURN A NO-BRAINER

Back in March, EcB chief executive Tom Harrison summed up English cricket’s existential conundrum. ‘We have no ambition to become the richest, most irrelevant sport in this country,’ he said. The results of his hopes and fears can be found in the new broadcasting deal, worth what by cricket’s standards is an eyewatering £1.1bn over five years from 2020. central to the deal is the return of live coverage to the BBc for the first time since 1999, in the form — and how times change — of 21 Twenty20 matches. More to the point, no terrestrial channel has shown live English cricket since channel 4 broadcast the 2005 ashes — widely regarded as the last time the sport properly captured the public imagination. For many devotees, it will feel as if cricket is coming home. as the popularity in its 60th year of BBc Radio’s Test Match Special shows, the sport’s bond with the average Briton is both enduring and profound. Other winners include Sky, who fought off competition from BT Sport to retain the rights to England internationals, and the women’s game, a broadcasting booby prize no longer. as for the EcB, they have nearly tripled their annual income — not least by dangling in front of suitors the prospect of a brand-new domestic Twenty20 tournament starting in three years’ time. On the face of it, then, Harrison and board chairman colin Graves have pulled off quite a coup, simultaneously securing the game’s financial future while acknowledging that the need for terrestrial coverage had become a no-brainer. This is not to denigrate Sky, who have set new standards since taking over from channel 4, and never interrupt the cricket to go to the racing. Some have never forgiven the BBc for missing the single that brought up Graham Gooch’s triplecentury against India at Lord’s in 1990. But for those of us who have banged on over the past few years about the need to make cricket as visible as possible, only to be told that the free-to-air debate was dead, the return of the BBc to the table is cause for celebration. Let’s not, however, get carried away. We’re still talking about no live cricket on terrestrial TV for another two summers after this. and, when it does appear, it will be Twenty20 only: two men’s and one women’s international, plus 10 games from the men’s T20 domestic tournament and eight from the women’s. as much as anything, this is a sign of the times. Snippets on digital platforms are more important than ever, and the days of Test matches returning to terrestrial as anything other than highlights are over. Yet the truth is that cricket, forever struggling to make itself heard in a nation obsessed by football, is in no position to be picky. Terrestrial TV is not the only answer. But it is a start. cricket must now hope that start is not too late.