English TV: Scrutiny swings to listed cricket (5 Feb 1998)

5 February 1998

English TV: Scrutiny swings to listed cricket

Paul Fox on TV Sport

THE future of domestic Test cricket on television will be debated today at a special meeting of the Government task force, chaired by Lord Gordon of Strathclyde, to review the listed events.

It is the thorniest issue facing them: the other seven events like the Grand National and the FA Cup final are almost certain to remain on the list.

The BBC's contract for Test cricket expires at the end of this summer, and the England and Wales Cricket Board seek a sizeable increase in their £15 million fee agreed in 1994. To achieve this they are running a noisy campaign to take the Test matches off the listed events so that they can obtain what they call "a fair price" for the television rights.

What cricket's rulers seem unable to grasp is that cricket on television is not very popular. Test match viewing figures are poor during the week and only rise to four or five million at the weekend.

Nevertheless, the criteria laid down for listed events still applies to Test match cricket: "Sporting events, which are truly part of our national culture, should be freely available on national terrestrial TV for everyone who wishes to watch them." That is the instruction Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has given the Gordon Committee.

Unless they strike it out in their report, due before Easter, cricket will remain on BBC television, since neither ITV nor Channel 4 nor Channel 5 show interest in the Tests.

This lack of interest from other broadcasters irritates the hierarchy at Lord's. To lead their campaign against the Broadcasting Act and its provisions they have hired Richard Peel, a journalist from the BBC. To observers it is a little ironic that a man from Auntie is attempting to win another jewel from the BBC's already depleted sports crown.

What are the choices available to Lord Gordon and his committee? They can leave things as they are or they can de-list the Test matches.

In the last few days a new compromise has been put forward: de-list the weekday coverage of the Tests, thus making them available to Sky Sports, and preserve the listing only at the weekend, enabling the BBC to show Test cricket in Grandstand and Sunday Grandstand.

There is a sort of precedent for this proposal: Wimbledon. The fact is that only the Wimbledon finals are listed: the rest of the fortnight is available to all comers. If this example were to be followed by cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board would benefit financially and keep the sponsors happy.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)