The cricket world cup: reasons to be cheerful | thearticle

The Cricket Word Cup has been an odd mixture of success and failure. Many matches have been close right up to the last overs and the host country did superbly well (always important to any

World Cup or Olympics). And yet… The obvious problem has been that the Cricket World Cup has not caught popular imagination in the same way as the London Olympics, England’s football teams

last year, or even Andy Murray and Serena Williams at Wimbledon. The obvious answer is because Sky bought the TV rights. Free-to-air sports are hugely popular and have real resonance in the

country at large. Cricket sold for dosh to Sky is not. Recently Channel 4 showed a terrific documentary on the 2005 Ashes series, one of the best Test series ever played. The players

couldn’t believe that test grounds were closed at 9.30 leaving 10,000 people still outside, longing to get in. Can you imagine that happening this summer? No. Because in 2005 Channel 4 were

showing the cricket live and audiences could watch the heroics of Freddy Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan et al. Today we won’t have the same excitement, however well the teams

play, because the TCCB wanted the money and weren’t thinking of the popularity of the game. Of course, the BBC have been hopeless about sports rights for years. They should have joined with

ITV to strangle Sky Sports at birth years ago, but unbelievably they were still obsessed with their ancient rivalry with ITV. Today they are busy investing in the rights to the Women’s Euro

Finals and Netball. Great for both sports but it won’t help cricket. But, as a fascinating interview with the sports writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose on Today on Saturday made clear, there

are reasons to be cheerful. First, all that stuff about “the Tebbit test” is dead and buried. At last. The other day I saw five young Pakistani men on their way to Lord’s to see their team,

already out of the running for the Semi-Finals. They were dressed in their national colours, full of joy at supporting their team. Of course, as Bose argued, this doesn’t make them less

British. They are capable of supporting Pakistan and being as integrated into British culture as Blowers or Aggers. But best of all, the World Cup drew large, passionate crowds of supporters

of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Listening to the radio, I was thrilled to hear every Indian boundary cheered by Indian fans as they chased New Zealand’s modest target. And as

Bose said, where else could you see supporters of so many countries in such numbers, cheering on their team, and, best of all, without any crowd trouble? This is huge. Could you imagine a

better advertisement for multi-culturalism? And then look at the England team: Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer and Chris Jordan, Joe Root and Jos Buttler. More diverse than the

England football or Rugby Union teams. Cricket has a great story to tell, perhaps especially to children and young people. A good Ashes series will only help. Broadcasters are getting very

dewy-eyed about Sky offering to share the Final with Channel 4. What else could they do? This has been a PR disaster for Sky and they are trying to rescue something from the ruins. For the

first time in years there’s been a real groundswell of public opinion against the selling off of cricket TV rights to Sky, though the BBC, typically, has failed to lead this. To be fair to

Sky, they have been far more innovative with technology than Auntie ever was. Remember the boring days of Jim Laker, Tony Lewis and Tom Graveney (though, yes, there was the saintly Richie

Benaud). Sky (and Channel 4) gave cricket coverage on TV a much-needed shot in the arm. And who knows if you could trust the BBC when they still inflict TV pundits like Alan Shearer, Kevin

Kilbane and Matthew Upson on football fans? The real legacy of the Cricket World Cup is not about who won or underperformed. It is about who at the TCCB or TV has the courage to bring back

cricket on free-to-air TV to inspire a new generation of fans and players? If they fail to seize the initiative, as is all too probable, cricket in this country will wither.