A moment cricket will never have again
ESPNcricinfo staff
15-Oct-2014
The 2005 Ashes represented a high point not just for English cricket, but for cricket in England as well, with the sport capturing the country's attention in a way it seldom had before. Since then, it has receded from view once again, with the ECB selling broadcasting rights to Sky and cricket going off free-to-air television. Writing in the Guardian, Andy Bull ponders the repercussions of that move.
It was, as Kevin Pietersen, and his ghost, write in one of the more acute pieces of analysis in KP: The Autobiography, "a moment in time" that cricket "will never have back again". Back then, they write, "English cricket had something it's lost. Superstars. Sexiness. Momentum. The right to be called the national sport." But then there were special circumstances. It had been a generation since England had last won the Ashes, they were playing a team acknowledged as one of the greatest in the history of the sport, and the cricket itself was compelling. And, of course, it was on terrestrial TV. They estimate that a total of 22.65m people watched a minimum of 30 minutes of live cricket at least one point that summer. The audience peaked at 8.4m. Compared to the last series in England, in 2001, the overall numbers had almost doubled. And, more important still, there was a 74% rise among under-15s.
And that was when the curtain came down. "English cricket," Pietersen writes, "took the decision to wind its neck back in." Unless you pay extra for the privilege, the only international cricket you've seen on your TV since has been in highlights packages. The following home Ashes, in 2009, reached a peak of just under 2m viewers.