£300m Sky cricket deal sparks storm

Giles Clarke, chairman of the ECB, today expressed his "delight" with a new four-year deal worth £300million, which will see Sky continue to screen domestic and international cricket through to 2013 while free-to-air channel Five retains its early evening highlights package.

But Clarke, who stressed the BBC could have pitched for a single Test match or a one-off series, criticised the decision not to bid for live rights - especially given the corporation's recent pay-out of £40m a year to screen live Formula One.

"I do think now is the time for a real debate on the future of public sector sports broadcasting," said Clarke.

"Cricket fans, and there are 19 million people who are interested in cricket in this country, buy TV licences and surely they should have a right to expect that the public sector broadcasters mount bids for the nation's summer sport.

"After all, just how many people play Formula One? If the BBC is to remain part of this it must answer to the millions of cricket fans in England and Wales how it prioritises its investment in sports rights.

"I think it is a question for cricket fans to ask the BBC."

The corporation hasn't shown a live home Test match since South Africa toured in 1998, after which it lost the broadcast rights to Channel 4.

The BBC's free-to-air rival won many plaudits for its re-vamping of the way cricket was covered on television - culminating in record-breaking audience figures, peaking at more than eight million, for the famous Ashes series victory in 2005.

But Sky, who already had the rights to England's overseas tours, won the rights to England's home Test matches from the following summer.

Many voices at the time raised concerns that the lack of live cricket on free-to-air TV would harm the popularity of the game, which was riding high following the Ashes victory, and the BBC was urged to bid for the rights when they came up again.

The BBC director general Mark Thompson promised two years ago that his organisation would "look very closely at cricket again".

Clive Leach, chairman of Durham and part of the ECB's negotiating team, declared himself "surprised and disappointed" by the lack of a BBC bid, and added: "I couldn't quite understand the thinking."

However today the broadcaster responded, though, by saying it was "absurd to blame the BBC for this outcome."

A spokeswoman added: "The BBC is astonished by the comments from the ECB. We have always said that any bid for live Test cricket has to be subject to value for money and fitting into scheduling, and in our view neither of these criteria was met."