ECB denies Twenty20 rights claim

The ECB has denied reports that they will sell Twenty20 TV rights as part of their overall package in the new deal for 2010 onwards.

The current contract expires in 2009 and the next four-year deal will be negotiated shortly, with the explosion of Twenty20 set to increase the value considerably. A report in The Sunday Telegraph said that the deal would be one large package.

"It will be part of the whole broadcast contract," the ECB commercial director John Perera told the newspaper. "Twenty20 is part of our event portfolio and therefore it makes no sense selling it separately."

However, Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, said Twenty20 would be one of many packages on offer for broadcasters. "The article in the newspaper is simply wrong,'' he said. "The ECB's Twenty20 Cup, which is still being scoped, will be part of the separate 27 packages which are available to all and any broadcasters - an error has been made in confusing the processes with the packages.''

If rights were sold as one large package, the huge cost, certain to exceed the £200million paid by BSkyB for the current deal, would virtually rule out any terrestrial bidders. This would mean the only cricket on free-to-air would be Test-match highlights.

Last month, Ian Lucas, the Labour MP for Wrexham, wrote to Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, asking for the government to look into bringing Test cricket back to free TV, saying that viewing figures have slumped from eight million in 2005 to 300,000. Since 1998 cricket has only been a B-List sport, meaning only highlights have to be available on free-to-air TV.