Cricket needs to be a Crown Jewel
Sky have been proudly trumpeting their record viewing figures for this thrilling Ashes series. Edgbaston set a new high for a Test match on the channel, only for it to be eclipsed by Headingley with an average of 965,000 viewers over the four days.
A Broad Acres epic that could have been penned by a Bronte – but still under a million?
Nothing more clearly sums up the folly of the short-sighted decision to sell up lock, stock and barrel to satellite broadcasters.
This see-saw series is the greatest advert cricket could possibly have, but Casualty is pulling in three times as many viewers.
Had it been on terrestrial television the numbers would be off the scale.
The MCC published an interesting report into the Test arena’s global health this week, which recommended setting up a fighting fund to support it in countries where it is less popular and, by extension, less financially viable.
Money is important but so too are eyeballs and prioritising the pound signs has come at a great cost to English cricket.
These Ashes have provided mesmeric, gripping drama elevated by how equal the two sides are.
For those fortunate enough to be able to afford Sky, the series has been a joyous thief of time.
The women’s Ashes – which has also been pulling in record numbers on Sky – has been equally compelling.
England, walking a tightrope since game three, are remarkably still in the contest with two matches to go.
What a summer it is turning out to be – but an open promotional goal for the sport is being missed. England’s
home Test matches used to be part of the sporting Crown Jewels that had to be screened terrestrially.
That situation changed 25 years ago when the-then Culture Secretary Chris Smith was lobbied hard by English cricket, who wanted the extra money Sky were willing to pay, and he took them off the ring-fenced list.
Sky and Channel 4 shared broadcasting responsibilities until the end of the brilliant 2005 Ashes, after which it went solely satellite.
The strategy blunder was belatedly recognised in the ECB’s determination to screen some of The Hundred on BBC when the new format was launched two years ago.
The intentions are right but with no Test cricket available, it is like hanging a child’s drawing of a clown in a gallery and leaving the Van Gogh in the store room.
The pictures painted this summer in the Ashes have been vivid, each Test a mini-masterpiece in its own right.
The packed stadiums around the country – and those Sky figures – are testament to the buy-in from the public but the reach is incomparable compared to terrestrial TV.
Scroll back to the last Test shown on Channel 4 in the 2005 Ashes and an average of 3 million viewers tuned in, with a peak of 7.4m for the final session as England regained the urn. Government needs to look at returning cricket to the Crown Jewels cupboard and making at least one home Test a year a listed event – the Lord’s match perhaps.
But in the short term there needs to be some lateral thinking applied. This is a moment to be grasped. If England can win at Old Trafford and take the series to a fifth Test decider, Sky should do as they did for the 2019 World Cup final and share coverage of it with a terrestrial broadcaster.
The Oval would be the biggest event of the sporting summer.
It is only right that the maximum number of people possible are able to enjoy such an occasion.