Time for free-to-air cricket?

David Conn reopens the debate on whether cricket should be made free-to-air on TV, especially with respect to the recently concluded Ashes. In the Guardian, Conn feels that the England victory should have been watched by everyone in the country, as it would have served as a tool to bring the nation together.

A committee chaired by David Davies, formerly of the FA, is currently considering whether the "crown jewels" list of sporting events, which are required to be available on free-to-air TV, should be changed, with cricket always the prime candidate for restoration to the live list. And here it was on cue, a Test victory inescapably presenting itself as a national unity, "watercooler" moment, the stuff of newspaper front pages, TV news headlines and a letter to Andrew Strauss from a leader yet to overcome his own back foot struggles quite as happily, Gordon Brown.