Ashes on free TV moves a step closer

The prospect of Ashes cricket returning to free-to-air TV moved a step closer last night after the Government broadly accepted a "persuasive" set of recommendations made by David Davies' report into the future of the "crown jewels" of British sport on the small screen.

But England's cricket authorities nevertheless remain convinced they can maintain the status quo, which sees Sky enjoy exclusive rights to Test cricket in this country.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said they were "extremely pleased" following the publication of an initial consultation by Ben Bradshaw, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Mr Bradshaw has concluded that there should continue to be a protected list of events – the crown jewels – that must be shown on free-to-air television, but that a financial "impact assessment" should also be made.

It was the ensuing loss of income through much reduced TV rights, that most concerned the ECB.

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Ashes are not 'crown jewels' yet, says Giles Clarke

Giles Clarke is confident that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) can overturn the recommendation of the David Davies review that home Ashes Test matches be returned to free-to-air television after 2013, a move that would be sure to adversely affect ECB revenues which rely heavily on an exclusive deal with Sky Sports.

He does not expect a legal challenge – which has been mooted – to be necessary.

“We haven’t taken legal advice and are not intending to do so,” Clarke said. “I’m confident that the response of cricket’s recreational arm and the Government’s understanding of the situation will produce a logical and sensible resolution to this situation. This is now an issue for the Government to grapple with. We’ve had a very sensible hearing from the Government in the past.”

Davies’s recommendations, which would affect various sports but perhaps none as severely as cricket, which draws substantial revenue – the ECB puts it at over £90m - from Sky’s coverage of the Ashes, now pass to the culture secretary Ben Bradshaw and sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe for a 12-week period of consultation.

Clarke believes that during this time, cricket will be able to put a case that was largely denied it by Davies’s committee, which invited the ECB to only one of 14 meetings. The one cricketing expert on Davies’s nine-man panel, Angus Fraser, was one of four to vote against the Ashes being returned to free-to-air TV.

“The government are big supporters of community cricket and they realise the importance of the anti-obesity programme and how critical it is to get children in state schools playing cricket,” Clarke added.

“We’ve got to convince the Government that economically cricket cannot afford this, and we will. The future of the game as our national summer sport stands in high risk and I’m not going to allow it to be destroyed by an act of shoddy opportunism by David Davies. I’m confident that this is a Government that listens and cares intensely about the issue of sport in the community.”

ECB officials insist that if Davies’s recommendations are adopted, jobs at grass-roots level will be lost. “Should we be putting aside £7m for redundancies?” Clarke said. “Is the Government going to have us enforce half those working in the grassroots game into redundancy? Is that the best way to build a side to beat Australia?”

The situation is complicated by the fact that neither BBC nor Channel 4, terrestrial broadcasters who have shown cricket in the past, seem keen to screen cricket again, while Sky would need to raise its reach to 95 per cent of the available audience to qualify for free-to-air coverage. Sky’s reach is expected to pass 90 per cent after the digital switchover.

On the back of lucrative deals with Sky the ECB has managed to build up substantial financial reserves of around £30m from a £2m overdraft in 2001, but the board fears that this money would quickly be absorbed if Davies recommendations were adopted.

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Ashes victory for viewers will plunge cricket into poverty, ECB warn

Freddie Flintoff will go down as the beefeater who rescued one of sport's crown jewels if Ashes Tests are restored to terrestrial TV.

But Flintoff, whose heroic suppression of the Aussies in both 2005 and 2009 did more for English cricket's image than any cosmetic makeover, will get little thanks from Lord's for his stirring deeds.

An independent panel's recommendation that home Ashes series should be shown on free-toair television was greeted with predictable squeals from the England & Wales Cricket Board, where the ruling blazers know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Ecb chairman Giles Clarke - the man who jumped at a Texas billionaire's casket of fools' gold - claimed the move would have a "disastrous" impact at grass roots level, taking bats and balls out of the hands of children, women and the disabled.

The panel, chaired by former Football Association executive director David Davies, has recommended to the Government that home Tests between England and Australia are restored to the list of crown jewels from 2016.

That would prevent Sky Sports, who paid £220 million last year to renew their exclusive four-year deal with ECB, from screening Tests exclusively to homes armed with satellite dishes.

And Clarke fears that being forced to sell Ashes Tests to freeto-air broadcasters would slash ECB's revenue by £40m a year, from £66m to £25m, and plunge cricket into depression.

He said: "We are in a position where the Prime Minister has, quite rightly, promised a golden decade of sport. If Mr Davies' report is implemented, there will be a decade of decay across the recreational game.

"The economic impact on cricket would be devastating. We wouldn't have a hope of coaching the 10,000 new coaches we are training in the next four years. We would have to cut that out.

"Our current estimates are that half the players at least would have to be made redundant, so we see it as being something that would take cricket back to a position of extreme poverty."

As Flintoff plundered with bat and ball in 2005, Channel Four's Ashes viewing figures peaked at 8.9 million. When Frederick the Great tweaked the kangaroo's tail again last summer on Sky Sports, however, his satellite audience was barely a quarter as much.

Armchair fans would have more sympathy with Clarke's emphasis on balance sheets ahead of cricket reaching out to a wider audience if counties did not squander so much money on Kolpak players - mainly South Africans - who qualify as non-overseas signings because of spurious European passports.

Half of the 18 first-class counties rely on annual £1.5 million handouts from Lord's to survive. It would not necessarily be such a bad thing if reduced income forced them to concentrate more resources on home-grown youngsters than smuggling expensive imports through the back door.

The Davies Report will also flush out terrestrial TV channels who have paid only lip service to cricket for a decade.

Since home Tests were de-listed from the crown jewel untouchables in 1998, the BBC have shown the national summer game little short of contempt.

The Corporation did not even bother to bid for televised cricket last year, yet they found £200m of licence fee-payers' money to blow on the polluting bedlam of Formula One.

Ecb chief executive David Collier admitted: "It was a surprise that their priority for investment went in that direction, but that is something for the broadcaster to answer."

Cricket was by no means the only sport up in arms at the Davies Report, which recommended that the Epsom Derby, rugby league's Challenge Cup final and the Winter Olympics should all be sacrificed from crown jewels.

And the proposal to slap a terrestrial TV-only preservation order on the whole Wimbledon tennis fortnight and Rugby World Cup was also condemned by their governing bodies.

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Ashes win only the starting point - Andrew Strauss

England have arrived in South Africa for their two-and-a-half month tour with captain Andrew Strauss determined to build on his team's 2-1 victory in the Ashes during the summer. Strauss is especially keen for his team to stake its claim to the No. 1 Test ranking, an honour that currently belongs to South Africa.

"We've talked a lot about how winning the Ashes is not the end of the road, it's almost the starting point for us to improve," Strauss said. "We'd be lying if we didn't want to be the number one side in the world. But if you look at how the ranking system works it will take a number of years of solid progression from where we are at the moment and consistency is crucial. Ultimately it's about not taking our foot off the gas."

England were criticised for seemingly taking their foot off the gas after they won the Ashes in 2005. They had followed up that victory with a 2-0 drubbing in Pakistan.

"The perception of the post-2005 period is that we took our eye off the ball quite badly. I'm not comfortable with that myself," Strauss said. "I remember that Pakistan tour and how hard we worked at it. We had a number of very crucial injuries which didn't help.

"If you look at our performances over the last 12 months we're far from the genuine article and where we want to be. No one in the squad truly believes we've made it, we've got a long way to go. I want to see our players hungry and committed."

England are scheduled to play two Twenty20 internationals, five ODIs, and four Tests in South Africa and this will be their first Test series since Andrew Flintoff's retirement from the format. Flintoff, who is currently undergoing rehabilitation from surgery in Dubai, won't be available for the limited-overs formats either.

In Flintoff's absence, Stuart Broad, who was Man of the Match in the deciding Ashes Test at The Oval, is expected to perform the allrounder's role in the side but Strauss sought to play down the attention on the 24-year old. "It's not a realistic expectation for Broad to fill Flintoff's shoes in both disciplines in the short term. It would be wrong to heap that expectation on his shoulders," Strauss said.

"Over the years we've had to do without Flintoff quite often and what we've found is that we've done quite well by everyone taking responsibility and playing a bit better. Stuart Broad is not a like for like replacement for Flintoff anyway but he has his own set of skills, some of which are world class and some of which need work. We don't want him to be the saviour we turn to, we need all 11 to do that.

"Stuart has his head screwed on. There has been a lot of media attention on him but he realises that there's much room for him to improve. We're excited about him but the last thing I want to do is put a huge amount of expectation on his shoulders. You must give people room to improve and hopefully he'll continue that development this winter.

England begin their tour with a warm-up match against the Eagles on November 6 in Bloemfontein and have two more practice games ahead of the first Twenty20 international against South Africa in Johannesburg on November 13.

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