Cricket bosses urged to make more matches free on television
CRICKET administrators need to do more to put the sport on free-to-air television following the England team’s World Cup success, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright says today.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Wright urges the sport’s bodies to “encourage as much live sport to be as accessible as possible, whether that’s on free-to-air or other public sources”, without cutting off vital funds from pay television deals.
The news came as Labour questioned the Government’s commitment to the sport with figures showing that one cricket pitch has closed every three weeks in England since the Tories came to power in 2010.
The BBC last broadcast live cricket in 1999 and the sport has not been available on free-to-air television since the 2005 Ashes, shown on Channel 4.
Cricket is a notable omission in Government rules, which state that rugby and football world cups, the Olympics, the Grand National and Wimbledon tennis finals should be shown live on free-to-air channels.
Sky allowed Channel 4 to broadcast the final live which meant that a combined peak audience of 8.3 million viewers watched the closing stages from Lord’s. The BBC also reported record-breaking hits on its website, with 39.7million page views – more than any of the corporation’s web pages this year.
The BBC’S sports editor, Dan Roan, speculated that the total audience could have been even higher if it had not clashed with the BBC’S live coverage of the Wimbledon men’s tennis final.
Clive Efford, the former shadow sports minister who is now a member of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, told The Daily Telegraph that the sport’s future depended on getting more box office exposure.
Tracey Crouch, the former sports minister, added: “Sport needs to reflect on whether broadcast deals should be about the money or the impact of more people watching.”
BBC and Sky will share simultaneous live coverage for next summer’s launch of the Hundred tournament, a domestic club competition that will see eight city-based franchises play a 100ball format.
The England and Wales Cricket Board hopes its new faster format will address plunging attendances at county matches.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, led tributes to the England team after Sunday’s nail-biting victory at Lord’s cricket ground and hosted a reception for the winning team at 10 Downing Street last night. Downing Street sources indicated that members of the team would have to wait until the New Year honours to see if any would be awarded MBES or OBES.
Labour’s culture spokesman, Tom Watson, pointed to figures from the House of Commons library showing that a net 154 cricket pitches have been lost since 2010 at a rate of one every three weeks.
There are currently 5,896 “operational public-access cricket pitches” in England. Mr Watson said: “Access to cricket has been hindered by the huge loss in pitches since 2010 on the Tory government’s watch.
“It’s a terrible shame that funding cuts are so affecting participation in this great game.”
Critics pointed out that 43 per cent of the winning England team went to an independent school. But Ashley Giles, England’s director of cricket, pledged more action to encourage cricket in state schools.
He told the BBC: “I went to a state school and when I was at school we played two games a year so we’ve had this problem for a long time and we need to do something about it.”