BSkyB lands England Test coverage

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by top edged for 4

The chairman of Durham, and a former director of ITN, Leach said bluntly: "There will always be people in certain walks of life who cannot afford certain things.
"That's the way it will be." "

While I'm quite tempted to email these charlatans, I feel I should air my views here first... so I can have them severely shot down in flames and reconstructed...

One wonders how much precisely the "first class" counties would lose from say attendance figures and general membership as a result of laying off all but one of their foreign imports.

How many foreign national cricketers were on the books of the counties last season - singularly and in total?
A good deal more than eighteen.

It occurs to me that if you really need £20 million more than the previous deal... well... what was that phrase again?
Oh yes

Originally Posted by Durham's Leach

There will always be people in certain walks of life who cannot afford certain things.
That's the way it will be.

Quite apt really.

I realise that foreign imports do bring fans through the turnstyles... but let's say England win the Ashes (I don't think that we will, but if we did) more people would want to go and watch the game - or even (heaven forbid) watch it live (for free).
As a direct result of that, the bread and butter one dayers that the counties admit have to be played (for the attendance monies accrued) would be possibly(?) sold out, and we wouldn't need seventy-five (that's an exaggeration - at least I hope it is) international imports playing in county cricket.

More English (British) county players, surely means: more England players rising to the top - you'd hope so at any rate.
Which equals less money disappearing into the pockets of chaps who don't even live here for six months of the year.
And yes I know, the English cricket season is over six months long, but if each county has three or four foreign imports playing - some not even Test players - they don't all need to be there for the entire season.

Even though my first memory of watching cricket - ignoring the five minutes looking at a colour television for the first time in 1975 when England played Australia - was seeing Clive Lloyd's '76 West Indians batter England (and I mean batter) three to nil. I did see it, live for free. I was fifteen and it made a huge mark on me. I had played at school from eight to thirteen and hated it. I couldn't wait for the football season to start again. As a young boy I thought it was really boring to play.
But at fifteen, whether it is because it is more cerebral, than (and I like Goatman's phrase) "oikball" or whether it was to do with the gritty determination of a team of possibly out-classed individuals - I'm not sure whether that's true or not to this day - attempting to overcome insurmountable odds. I don't know what it was... perhaps the shared pleasure and knowledge of a school friend... either way, it was WATCHING IT ON TELLY (for free of course) that made me the stick-in-the-mud fan that I am today. When I finished my degree, I joined the blokes in the park who had just founded their own team... nineteen years later I am still playing for them.

Given that my father - then a newspaper reporter (not a sports journalist - he hated sport) - couldn't afford, or couldn't be bothered to buy a colour television. One wonders if like minded parents (anti sport fanatics) are going to bother to buy SKY so that their children, who they wish to turn into mini-versions of themselves, can enjoy the wonders of the English cricket team.

I suspect not. So well done ECB. Those poor lads born in 1991 (fifteen in 2006) to parents who aren't prepared to finance SKY are never going to get the chance to see cricket for free.

Congratulations you've just lost part of a generation of English cricketers.

[Moss]

I can't get Sky because I live in a Grade II listed house and it's not allowed by the local council.
I am incredibly annoyed at this decision - words can't do justice to how p***** off I am.
It may be unjustified, but I feel cheated.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Moss

I can't get Sky because I live in a Grade II listed house and it's not allowed by the local council.
I am incredibly annoyed at this decision - words can't do justice to how p***** off I am.
It may be unjustified, but I feel cheated.

Moss can you not get cable like I have, there is no dish or anything like that, and you can get all "SKY" programms, would be one in the eye for your local council ,I know only to well whay them b******* can be like, good luck.

[Moss]

Nice idea Ernest but my town, or rather, my city, is not cable enabled. Ridiculous!

[R W S]

Three different takes on the Sky television deal (Dec 18):
(12th headline down)

http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/CR...f-the-web.html

[Kirsty Harris]

The Cricket Show returned for (the last) summer season on Channel 4 today - at 7.55am on a Sunday morning!! With no publicity to highlight it's return!! I bet that gets great viewing figures!

Yet further proof that the commitment that Channel 4 have to cricket is on the decline, and has been for the last few years. It's decisions like this that made it easier for the ECB to sell off the rights to SKY en-mass!

[Mongoose]

Originally Posted by Kirsty Harris

The Cricket Show returned for (the last) summer season on Channel 4 today - at 7.55am on a Sunday morning!! With no publicity to highlight it's return!! I bet that gets great viewing figures!

Yet further proof that the commitment that Channel 4 have to cricket is on the decline, and has been for the last few years. It's decisions like this that made it easier for the ECB to sell off the rights to SKY en-mass!

Absolutely! I woke up this morning, put on the TV and saw the end credits! I have been very busy at work this year, so haven't had much time to keep up with everything going on in the cricket world - in fact, most of what I'm aware of has been gained over the past week on this forum, so thanks, all.

But I have been starved of cricket for ages, and would certainly have got up a bit earlier to catch the show this morning if I'd known about it. Do C4 care about cricket viewers? NO! Cricket isn't pop music / reality TV / trashy
American soaps / the best 100 ... ever. So they don't bother trying to make us aware of its existence. I think I'll be listening to my radio a lot this summer. At least some things are still sacred.

[Kirsty Harris]

The thing that makes me annoyed is that when C4 first got the cricket, you couldn't find fault with them - apart from the racing on Saturday. Highlights were ususally on at a reasonable time and about an hour long, and the Cricket Show was called the Cricket Roadshow, which was live on a saturday morning from one of the County grounds or test ground if a test match was on. Now it's highlights at 3am for about 15 minutes! I just think they can't be bothered with the cricket at all now; they figure they've lost the coverage after this year so who cares. I imagine there attitude will change somewhat when the Ashes start, but it'll be too little too late. It makes me almost glad that Sky have got the rights now - at least they understand sport. Still feel sorry for those who can't afford it, though.