England’s epic Ashes vs Australia is greatest cricket advert but trick missed

Sky have been proudly trumpeting their record viewing figures for this Ashes series. Edgbaston set a new high for a Test match on the channel only for it to be eclipsed by Headingley with an average of 965,000 viewers over the four days.

A Broad Acres epic that could have been penned by a Bronte yet still under a million? Nothing sums up the folly of English cricket’s short-sighted decision to sell up lock, stock and barrel to satellite broadcasters more clearly than that.

This see-saw series is the greatest advert for the game cricket could possibly have yet Casualty is pulling in three times as many viewers. Had this series been on terrestrial television the numbers would have been off the scale.

The MCC published an interesting report into Test cricket’s global health this week which recommended setting up a fighting fund to support it in countries where it is less popular and by extension less financially viable.

Money is important but so too are eyeballs and prioritising the pound signs has come at a great cost for English cricket. These Ashes have provided mesmeric, gripping drama elevated by how equal the two sides are.

For those fortunate enough to be able to afford Sky, this series has been a joyous thief of time. The women’s Ashes – which has also been pulling in record numbers on Sky – has been equally compelling. England, walking a tightrope since game three, are remarkably still in the contest with two games to go.

What a summer of cricket it is turning out to be – yet an open promotional goal for the game is being missed. England’s home Test matches used to be part of the sporting Crown Jewels which had to be screened terrestrially.

That situation changed 25 years ago when the then culture secretary Chris Smith, lobbied hard by English cricket who wanted the extra money Sky were willing to pay, took them off the ringfenced list. Sky and Channel 4 shared broadcasting responsibilities through until the end of the 2005 Ashes after which English cricket went solely satellite.

The strategy blunder was belatedly recognised in the ECB’s determination to screen some of The Hundred on BBC TV when the new format was launched two years ago. The intentions are right but with no Test cricket available, it is like hanging a child’s drawing of a clown in a gallery and leaving the Van Gogh in the store cupboard. The pictures painted this summer in the Ashes have been vivid, each Test a mini-masterpiece in its own right.

The packed stadiums around the country – and those Sky figures – are testament to the buy-in from the public but the reach is incomparable compared to terrestrial TV.

Scroll back to the last Test match shown on Channel 4 in the 2005 Ashes and an average of 3m viewers tuned in with a peak of 7.4m for the final session as England regained the Ashes.

Government needs to look at returning cricket to the Crown Jewels cupboard and making at least one home Test a year a listed event. The Lord’s Test perhaps. But in the short term there needs to be some lateral thinking applied.

This is a moment to be grasped. If England can win at Old Trafford and take this series to a fifth Test decider, Sky should do as they did for the 2019 Cricket World Cup final and share coverage of it with a terrestrial broadcaster.

The Oval would be the biggest event of the sporting summer. It is only right that the maximum number of people possible are able to enjoy it.