M Bose: How No 10 went in to bat for the TV rethink that suited cricket (27 Jun 1998)

27 June 1998

How No 10 went in to bat for the TV rethink that suited cricket

By Mihir Bose

THE decision by Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, to allow Sky to bid for all the six cricket Tests in an English summer was the result of intervention by Downing Street, writes Mihir Bose.

Smith has denied Tony Blair exerted pressure but says the Prime Minister is involved in all decisions taken by the Government and that they reached a common conclusion. I understand this followed an intervention by the Policy Unit at No 10 which led to Smith changing his mind and came after the Policy Unit had been skilfully lobbied by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Even last weekend, officials at Smith's Culture, Media and Sports Ministry were working on plans which would still have reserved some Tests for the BBC. It would have meant Tests being shared between BBC and Sky. One idea, revealed in this column, was for the BBC to show the Saturday and Sunday of each Test, while Sky would have had Thursday, Friday and Monday. However, legal advisers of Smith's department did not think this would be workable and officials had come up with an alternative plan which would have given three Tests to the BBC and three Tests to Sky. Under such a plan, the BBC would have had the Lord's Test.

This formula was discussed at Lord's on Saturday when Tony Banks, the Sports Minister, went to watch England play South Africa and was a guest of the MCC president. On Sunday, Smith was at Lord's as guest of Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB. It was while Smith watched Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart provide what turned out to be false hope for an English salvation that the ECB worked hard to persuade him that while 3-3 might look like a neat score, it would prove the sort of draw cricket did not need.

Smith had arrived at Lord's after months of wrestling with the recommendations of the advisory committee he had himself set up to advise him about listed events. The committee, chaired by Lord Gordon, had proposed that while events such as the FA Cup final, the Derby, the men's and women's tennis finals at Wimbledon and Olympic Games should continue to be available only on terrestrial television, cricket could be moved to a B list where any broadcaster, terrestrial or satellite, could bid for it. However, if it was sold to a satellite channel then highlights had to be made available to the terrestrial channel.

The cricket authorities had proposed to Gordon that they would be quite happy to have one Test, the Lord's fixture, listed and shown only on BBC. Their argument was that this would be in line with other sports such as football or Wimbledon where only finals or major events are listed but not the entire sporting programme.

Gordon's committee rejected this as illogical. They felt that by having a B-listed item which also guaranteed highlights on terrestrial television, something never available before, they would actually be increasing the protection for sports like cricket not reducing it. The committee were mindful of the controversy over the Ryder Cup in 1995 - when it was shown exclusively on Sky with no highlights on BBC - that forced the late Lord Howell to reignite the debate on listed events.

Early indications were that Smith would accept the Gordon recommendations but he was made aware that taking Tests away from the BBC would be extremely unpopular with pensioners who form a significant percentage of those who watch almost every ball of televised Test cricket and who are also resistant to the blandishments of Sky. This resulted in the half-and-half BBC-Sky proposal which was an anathema to the ECB.

They had already started lobbying the No 10 Policy Unit and in particular, James Parnell. After Lord MacLaurin and his team had bent Smith's ear on Sunday, the ECB got to work on Parnell.

I understand that it was following further discussion between the No 10 Policy Unit and Smith's office that it was finally decided that cricket would go on the B list and Sky or any other satellite channel could bid for it. The ECB made much of the fact that just because Sky has the right to bid, does not mean it will bid or will get Tests, but such a move creates a market. This proved very persuasive for No 10 and eventually Smith.

If Smith's decision has made English cricket happy, his move to reject the Gordon committee's recommendation on the World Cup has thrown plans to sell the rights for the 2002 and 2006 tournaments into disarray. It could even lead to Smith's decision being challenged in the European courts.

Smith has rejected the Gordon committee's proposal that only some of matches in the World Cup finals should be retained on the A list - the final itself, the semi-finals and home nations' matches. The rest, Gordon had suggested, could go on the B list and be sold to any bidder. Smith has decided that all the World Cup finals matches should be protected.

This undercuts plans being made by media groups Kirsch and ISL, who paid 2.8 billion Swiss Francs for the television rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cup. Under the guidelines of FIFA, matches not involving a home nation could be sold to pay television and Kirsch have been toying with the idea of selling matches not involving England to Sky. However, Smith's decision means they cannot do that.

Peter Sprogis, managing director of Prima Sports & Media, Kirsh's UK arm, could barely contain his anger as he told me: "I wonder what Chris Smith's electoral aspirations are. He's talking of protecting the common person but in doing that he seems to be acting in a way which is detrimental to free enterprise. We shall be looking at this interesting proposal very closely. Will we go to court? I can't comment on that."

WEDNESDAY will see the launch of plans to build Britain's first indoor all-purpose sports stadium, comparable to the one in Troy, Michigan, which hosted the Brazil v Sweden Group game in the 1994 World Cup. The plans are the joint work of Hounslow Council and Brentford Football Club, now under the control of Ron Noades.

The idea, I understand, is to build a 25,000-seater stadium at Western Markets near Heathrow. It could either have a retractable roof or removable pitch with the grass being lifted in and out on hovercraft-style trays. Who will finance it? I suspect some money will come from the sale of Griffin Park, say £5 million, and a good deal from the Lottery.

The development will be in aid of trying to recapture Brentford's pre-war glory days when they were Arsenal's bogey team and 38,000 used to turn up at Griffin Park. Brentford also want to stay ahead of the growing challenge from Fulham.

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