Cricket on pay TV ‘could cost us stars’

AN MP claimed that cricket may have lost out on potential stars of the calibre of World Cup hero Ben Stokes by not being on freeto-air television since 2005 as he clashed with the sport’s bosses.

Labour’s Ian Lucas challenged officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board as he told a committee that monthly participation rates fell from 403,000 to 279,000 2011 to 2016.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee is examining how English cricket can capitalise on the men’s team’s World Cup success this year.

And flanked by the Men and Women’s World Cup trophies, both held by England, ECB’s chief executive officer Tom Harrison was quizzed over how the sport would avoid repeating what happened after England’s famous Ashes triumph of 2005.

Committee chairman Damian Collins said the following years actually saw a decline in attendances, something blamed by many on the switch from free-toair to pay television.

Mr Harrison said the game in 2005 was very different and investment was needed then to bring stadia up to scratch, but that the decline was a “more complex issue”. Mr Lucas asked about the possibility of having just one Test match on free-to-air television, adding that the impact of the Rugby World Cup was increased by being on ITV.

But Mr Harrison said an earlier review showed that having one Test match a year between 2014 and 2017 on free-to-air TV would cost the game £137.4m.

He said missing out on the extra money from pay TV would impact on its strategic plan to grow cricket and was “extremely hard to justify”.

Mr Lucas replied that the fall in participation rates between 2011 and 2016 was also “extremely hard to justify” and asked: “I wonder how many Ben Stokes we lost in that period”.