Sky’s La Liga surrender

A FURTHER sign that Sky Sports massively overspent in paying £11million a match for their Premier League coverage is the fact they ceded the Spanish football contract to arch-rivals BT Sport without a fight.

It is understood that Sky made a far bigger first-round offer for La Liga, but were upset enough about the tender going to a second round that they withdrew from a contest BT believed they had no chance of winning.

With Spanish clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid being such big TV attractions in the English market, cost-cutting after that PL gamble can be the only reason for Sky’s surrender. THERE was another notable landmark during the Edgbaston Test apart from Mitchell Johnson’s 300th Test wicket. Cricket writer and BBC commentator at county level Elizabeth Ammon (@legsidelizzy) posted her 200,000th tweet from the Test. Even social media obsessive Piers Morgan has only managed around 68,000 tweets. The indefatigable Lizzy has a daily average of 70 tweets. ECB chief executive Tom Harrison has moved to reassure counties who have voiced their concern about the threat to their future from a proposed eight-team city-based Twenty20 tournament.

Harrison, who is reviewing all parts of the domestic game, has emailed all county chiefs, saying: ‘We are looking at a range of options to enhance our domestic competitions, but extensive change will only be successful following open discussion and a detailed understanding of the benefits and long-term consequences for the game.’