Comments on: No Ashes on Sky means no money for English cricket

By: stephen decaston

stephen decaston — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:21:50 +0000

The ECB grassroots issue is total cods wallop. read the attached article.
all the sky money does is line pockets and prop up the counties

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/436332.html

By: Mel

Mel — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:14:49 +0000

Great post King – I had resisted the lure of Sky since 2005, but capitulated this year as I couldn’t bear not to see the Ashes live.

It’s also very short sighted of the ECB not to worry about the profile of the game among the wider population – my children are force-fed cricket, but a quick straw poll amongst their friends after the Ashes victory revealed that hardly any of them could name a current England player. With the retirement of Flintoff that’s going to get worse.

By: Vim

Vim — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:25:41 +0000

‘Support us or I’ll make it so every English cricket loving t**t can watch your lot lose the Ashes again you Aussie c**t!

That should be – ‘Support us or I’ll make it so every English cricket loving t**t can watch the Aussies lose the Ashes again you American c**t!”

And Russell Crowe is a Kiwi, we don’t want him either.

By: Generalist

Generalist — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:27:36 +0000

Oops. You’re absolutely right.

Well, I suppose we all agree on the main thing: the ECB wants to maximise its short term income but in doing so it really misses the point.

By: D Charlton

D Charlton — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:10:13 +0000

Downing Street have been putting pressure on David Davies to make this announcement because it’ll give the government a cheap vote-boost in middle England. That ‘fact’ came from a Tory MP – so make of it what you will.

Generalist – the TV rights were sold off to Sky BEFORE the 2005 Ashes. The ECB failed to capitalise on that euphoria even before there was any euphoria. In fact, they sold the TV rights at the point that England had its best team since 1954… Clever thinking…

By: MIM

MIM — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:49:13 +0000

Does it really take a committee of sports specialists to decide that it is a good idea to increase the audience for a sporting event from 2m to 7m?

Not that I have any particular political cross to grind on my shoulder over this…

I vote Lib Dem and if they had their way LBW decisions would be made single transferable vote….

By: Price

Price — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:48:21 +0000

“Sports Specialist” Eamonn Holmes?

By: Generalist

Generalist — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:28:17 +0000

MIM –

That theory makes a decent story for the papers but it’s not really true. The Davies report, which is recommending this move, was written by a committee of sports specialists, independent from the government. In any case, the review was ordered by the DCMS more than a year ago, long before Murdoch made his switch to the Tories.

This is just a rare bit of luck for poor old Gordon, having this report published just when he was getting upset with News International for all that misspelt letter hoo-ha…

By: MIM

MIM — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:29:28 +0000

Does anyone think this may all be happening because Murdoch threw his lot in with the Tories?

Sports get sold off to Sky when Murdoch supports the government and protected when he supports the opposition.

Or as Malcolm Tucker would put it:

‘Support us or I’ll make it so every English cricket loving t**t can watch your lot lose the Ashes again you Aussie c**t!’

By: Bobby K

Bobby K — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:11:10 +0000

Excellent post

Losing 10 irrelevant counties and strengthening grassroots would be a massive boost for the test game