There can be little doubt that cricket needs to inspire young minds for its continued propagation and that having England matches on free-to air TV would encourage that. . As the marketing men will tell you, penetration is everything and a peak of two million viewers for the dénouement of this year’s Ashes at the Oval on Sky pales when compared to the seven million who watched the equivalent moment on Channel 4 four years earlier.

hat extra reach can have an effect. A month after England’s 2005 heroics I was in Norfolk and saw children playing cricket after school instead of football (it was October). The incredible narrative of that series was undoubtedly the catalyst for such unseasonal enthusiasm but those kids might never have been touched so directly had the series been on pay-TV, as now.

It was 11 years ago that Lord MacLaurin, then chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, paved the way for the current situation by persuading Tony Blair’s government to remove Test cricket from the A-list of sporting events like the Grand National and the FA Cup – the so-called ‘Crown Jewels’ – that had to remain on terrestrial TV. Now, a review, led by David Davies, is looking at whether the Ashes, though not all Test cricket, possesses enough “special national resonance” to be returned to the A-list and free-to-air television.

There are important consequences to consider. The ECB’s latest deal with Sky is worth £300 million over the next four years but any move to put the Ashes back to terrestrial TV, something the Government has the power to make compulsory, would decimate that value. More cricket would have to be offered to bidders just to limit the shortfall, leading to an even greater saturation of the fixture list than prevails now.

With a fifth of the ECB’s revenues going toward developing the grass roots and recreational side of the game (the most of any British sport), it isn’t difficult to see which aspect would suffer most in the pursuit of larger TV audiences. Reaching new viewers is a laudable ideal but not if it depletes the section in which most would begin their journey. According to one ECB insider, the drop in revenues would be ruinous, with hundreds of people and projects in that sector being made redundant.

County cricket would also be affected with playing staffs being cut back. Even the England players could suffer a reduction in salary, making them prey to parasitic Twenty20 competitions that are certain to have multiplied like pond life by the time the next TV rights come up for sale in 2012.

Excellence costs money and England currently boast an Ashes-winning men’s team and the best women’s team on the globe. Returning the Ashes to terrestrial TV might improve the wellbeing of the country, providing England are winning, but not the game that spawned them.

England celebtrated victory of Ashes series

Nathan Bracken

Nathan Bracken believes England will use their Ashes victory as motivation to complete a summer of misery for Australia when the two sides resume hostilities on Friday.

England will play the tourists for the first time since the hosts completed a 2-1 series win with a 197-run win at the Brit Oval.

The two sides had been due to play each other in two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester but both had to be abandoned due to rain.

The seven-match one day international series will begin at the ground where England claimed the Ashes, and Bracken, who was not in the Australia Test squad, believes Andrew Strauss’ team will be buoyed by their recent victory.

“The England side will be using the Ashes win as a motivation to try and beat us here in both forms,” the 31-year-old said.

“They will want to win the one form of the game that is left and walk away saying we beat Australia in both the Tests and the one-dayers.

“That will be their goal for the series and for us it will be our aim to stop them.”

England struggled to just 209 in their three-run win over Ireland just three days after winning the Ashes in their first one-day international game since the 2-0 ODI series win over the West Indies.

They followed up that series with a largely disappointing performance in the ICC Twenty20, where Paul Collingwood’s side failed to make the semi-finals and lost to minnows Holland.

Bracken believes, however, that the hosts have the quality to challenge Michael Clarke’s team, who sit one place above England in the ICC ODI rankings in third.

“On paper the England side has a lot of good cricketers in it,” he added.

“They have a lot of good players who are coming out of a good Ashes series of performing well and plus there’s also a few new guys who have been chucked in there who are eager to impress.

“The series is in England as well so if you are an English player playing in England there is no more motivation than playing Australia here.”

The last time the two sides met in an ODI series was in 2007 when England surprised the hosts down under by beating them in the Commonwealth Bank Series shortly after squandering the Ashes 5-0.

Bracken believes that loss will give the Australians an added incentive to beat their old rivals in this ODI series.

“The last ODI series here was a draw and the last time England was in Australia England won so realistically we haven’t beaten England in a one day series either here or in Australia for the last two times so we are trying to get revenge for those two,” the left arm seamer said.

“We haven’t been consistent enough in our one-day form, there has been glimmers of what we can do.

“We have put on good performances in Dubai (against the West Indies) and we played well at the end of the South Africa tour.

“But the consistency that we have prided ourselves on for as long as we can remember is probably not as good as we have expected it to be.”

andrew_flintoff celebrate in Ashes

Andrew Flintoff, The 31-year-old underwent surgery on his long-standing knee injury after helping England seal their second consecutive home Ashes series win at The Oval last weekend.

Flintoff hopes to be back in action by March, but he told the News of the World: “There is a possibility I may not play again. It’s something I’m going to have to be prepared for in case the operation is not as successful as I hope.

“There will be a question mark in my mind about whether I have played my last game until I know how the operation has turned out.

“I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind, but the success rate for an operation like this is pretty good.

“The bottom line is that if it doesn’t work, there’s nothing I can do about it.

“But I don’t want my career to end like this. My Test career ended with a high by England winning the Ashes and I’d like to finish my one-day career by winning the World Cup.”

Flintoff played through the pain at The Oval after missing the Headingley Test, but looked far from his best, with his only telling contribution in the second innings the run out of Ricky Ponting.

He said: “The day after the Ashes win I went for a scan, which confirmed my knee problem had got worse.

“I was really struggling towards the end of the final Test.

“The next few weeks are quite crucial in the recovery and I’m not supposed to put any weight on my knee.

“In the past when I’ve been on crutches for two or three weeks my leg has been terrible, so this time it’s going to be awful.

“I will see the specialist in a couple of weeks and then have another eight-week check-up. It’s only then we’ll know the extent of where I’m up to.

“I have set myself a target of returning for the tour to Bangladesh, which is from mid-February to the middle of March, but whether that’s realistic or not, I’m not sure,”

Dickie Bird Gives His Last Decision In Test Cricket

Former greatest British Test umpire Dickie Bird has joined the chorus of people imploring the  International  Cricket Council (ICC) to change their rules to ensure the best officials are appointed  to the biggest series.

Under ICC regulations, umpires are banned from standing in matches involving teams from their own countries, ensuring matches are overseen by “neutral” umpires.

Critics have argued that the best umpires should be appointed regardless of their nationality and the teams involved, and the issue came to a head during the recent Ashes series between England and Australia.

Australia’s Simon Taufel has been officially recognised as the ICC’s umpire of the year for the past five seasons but was prevented from officiating in the Ashes, which was clouded by a series of contentious decisions.

“I don’t know whether the ICC or the ruling body has got the best umpires, but you must get the best umpires, especially to do an Ashes series when there’s so much at stake,” Bird told Sky Sports on Tuesday.

“Decisions can cost a Test match or a player’s career. It looked at times as if the pressure got at the two umpires out in the middle.”

Bird, 76, said he sympathised with the umpires who did control the Ashes series because of the extra scrutiny they were under but said their jobs would be made easier if more video replays were allowed.

“It’s not an easy job, it’s very difficult, but now there are electronic aids so they should be able to get most of the decisions right,” he said.

Len hutton

jim laker

Run machine Jack Hobbs

England all-time greats Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs and Jim Laker were posthumously inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame at The Oval on 23 August.

In a lunchtime ceremony during the final Ashes Test, representatives of each of the three men were presented with commemorative caps as part of the joint venture between the International Cricket Council and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations.

ICC president David Morgan presented the cap for record-breaking batsman Hobbs to Surrey chairman David Stewart; Hutton’s cap was given to his son Richard and grandson Ben, who have also both been cricketers of note; England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke handed a cap to off-spinner Laker’s grandchildren Jamie Harvey and Nicholas Marks.

Hutton represented England in 79 Test matches, amassing 6,971 Test runs at an average of 56.67 – including 19 centuries and 33 half-centuries. The Yorkshire batsman and Ashes-winning captain’s greatest feat in Tests came with his 364 in 1938 at the Oval, then the highest all-time individual score. Hutton played in 513 first-class matches, making 40,140 runs at an average of 55.51. He currently sits ninth in the list for the most first-class hundreds scored in a career – 129.

Hobbs was one of cricket’s most prolific batsmen – and his record of 197 first-class centuries will never be beaten. n first-class matches, he scored 61,273 runs. He also played 61 Tests for England, making 5,140 runs at an average of 56.94. He became the first professional cricketer to be knighted in 1953.

Laker represented England between 1948 and 1959 in 46 Test matches, claiming 193 wickets at an average of 21.24. Yorkshire-born Surrey off-spinner Laker achieved another cricketing feat which will surely never be equalled – by taking 19 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall at Old Trafford in 1956.

“It just came to a point where I would come back from an injury and have a couple of weeks where everything was fine, then things would go downhill again” He told.

He said “I’ve done something like two years rehabilitation out of the last four and for my body, for my family’s sake I have decided to call time on the Tests and concentrate on the shorter form of cricket.”