Grey Sky looming for television viewers

Cricket Column: As the countdown to the Ashes series in Australia at the end of the year continues, England's summer of cricket is now in full swing. Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan may not inspire the same obsession among the cricket-loving public across the Irish Sea as a good old scrap with the Aussies, but it is significant that following on from last summer's epic Ashes battle the first three days of all the remaining Test matches in England this year have already been sold out.

But for those of us watching at home, the thrills of Muttiah Muralitharan bowling to Kevin Pietersen or Andrew Flintoff smashing the leather to all parts have been tempered by the fact that we now have to watch it all on pay television.

And although Sky, with upbeat music and colourful graphics, have the knack of making a game of Texas Hold 'Em between two professional snooker players interesting, it just hasn't managed the same for cricket.

Last year, Channel 4 attracted record viewing audiences to their world class coverage of the Ashes. The best commentators with the best technology and most insightful analysis of any TV network in world cricket were there to record perhaps the best cricket series of the modern era. And with Lou Bega's Mambo Number 5, Channel 4 even had the best signature tune since Booker T and the MGs' Soul Limbo was adopted by the BBC. I fear that in future we will look back on those days as the golden era of televised cricket because in a few short months the standard has already fallen.

In an exclusive domestic cricket deal, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sold television rights to BskyB for £220 million (€320 million). The peerless Mark Nicholas and Richie Benaud have been replaced by the buffoonery of Ian Botham and the bumbling of David Lloyd in a commentary team that spend more time laughing at each other than adding meaningfully to the cricket being played out in front of them. The wonderful work of Channel 4 analyst Simon Hughes has been replaced by the contrived observations of Nasser Hussain.

In a barrage of whooshing graphics and hyperbole it is difficult not to compare Sky to Channel 4. And it doesn't compare favourably.

I was talking to a stalwart of Coleraine Cricket Club yesterday and he told me that as a result of watching the Ashes on television, at the start of this season a large number of youngsters who had never played before turned up to give it a go. He said the same about other clubs across the North and it's also true for clubs in the rest of the country.

But now that cricket has moved to pay television it is estimated the number of viewers across Britain and Ireland has been more than halved and the good evangelistic work achieved by the 2005 season is in danger of being lost.