Lord MacLaurin of Knebworth, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has said that cricket Test matches should be removed from the list of “protected” sports events and the board allowed to negotiate its own broadcast deals unless more funding is received from the Government.
His comments come after it was announced that £100m of National Lottery money would be used to help set up a national sporting academy which would focus on swimming, athletics and other Olympic sports to the exclusion of games such as cricket, football and rugby.
While rugby and football have secured lucrative TV deals with Sky, Test cricket is not allowed to make deals with non-terrestrial broadcasters because it is on the Government’s list of sports which can only be shown on terrestrial TV.
Lord MacLaurin feels that cricket will remain underfunded if it is allowed neither the Lottery money nor non-terrestrial TV deals. It is believed that a four-year contract to broadcast Test matches could be worth around £150m.
Only Parliament would be able to decide if cricket should be removed from the list.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport: 0171 211 6200
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