England win the Ashes
As England cricket basques in the glory of their 2009 Ashes win over Australia, questions need to be asked about the disagraceful scenario the Ashes series 2009, has thrown up.
Cricket is not alone in being a sport under funded by the powers that be, the damage is not just done to the individual sport, but also the children of the UK, that are the new stars of the future.
This has been the first Ashes series that has not been available to watch on the UK terrestrial television channels.
Instead, coverage has been live on subscription TV channel Sky, for a premium price of their sports package of £32 per calendar month (which involves also being tied into a 12 month minimum contract), which in effect means that if we wanted to watch the ashes test matches live, then it would have resulted in a 12 month outlay of £384!
All the fans who have no option but to watch sport on our national TV, have had to watch each night (on the day of a test) a lesser channel (channel 5) for a 40 minute highlights program.
Although channel 5 did a very good job, it is totally unacceptable, to have one of our national sport’s biggest event, unavailable to the people of the UK on national television!
Sports, for any nation, is of vital importance to any country.
The level of interest that was generated as I grew up, could never be measured. I watched Wimbledon, my friends and I went out for weeks and played on the local tennis courts.
During the football season, Match of the Day and the Big match, were played out and discussed in school yards, back streets and on the fields of Britain.
Cricket was the sport taken up by many children once the football season was over.
Olympic games and later World athletic championships, were national sports that all of us could watch. (Currently, the World athletics championships are shown on BBC 2).
Most of the children of today, do not have access to subscription TV, how else are the future generations (from which we will pick our future sporting stars) be selected?
“We put money into the sport” argument, is a false one and ultimately damages the sport it is applied to.
As subscription TV takes over coverage of most sports – there are even rumours abound that Wimbledon could be lost to it – the prices of attending the grounds and stadium (that taxpayer’s money often has built) is not dropping. Access to the sports is increasing dramatically!
Each sports governing body is facing funding issues, but the public, which is their life blood, is being cut off from each sport when subscription is required to access it.
Ticket prices are going through the roof, parents of children have to pay money for coaches and sports, where as, in previous generations, children learned sporting skills at school and off their peers.
This can all be turned around and put right!
The government of the day needs to step in and protect national sports for free to air national television for the people. A simple law could be brought in, giving rights of coverage first and foremost to the people.
It cannot be right, morally or legally, that countries such as Norway and Iraq, have access to our premiership football matches being shown live, when the people of the country they are played in, are over charged and denied free access to the same games?
In the case of English cricket, all is not lost.
At present, ticket prices for the test matches here is less than £30 for each days play.
It has been reported that interest in the Ashes series in 2009 has not met the same levels of the Ashes win in 2005.
This is not just because the Aussies are no longer world leaders and THE team to beat. It is because in 2005 the nation was able to tune in and watch every shot played, every over, building up to the final test and the draw we needed to win the Ashes.
Not only does the sport benefit from more people viewing it, it also has a knock on effect in the revenue it generates. Websites and shops promote merchandise, kit, flags, equipment, etc.
More people pass through the grounds to watch county cricket as their players, who have played and won for England, draw in the crouds their status grows, which leads to TV endorsements, increasing the coverage of the sport still further.
When we win, the people come out to see the team parade the streets. The kids start playing the sport in the steets and on the fields, we have role models and idols from the sport, as a result, more talent is unearthed from the young kids and the sport benefits long term.
There will always be times when interest drops off a sport, we saw this with darts, stock car racing, ice dance, etc in the 70s and 80s.
Until Torvill and Dean revived interest in their sport at the olympics, the sport had been very low key.
If the public are being forced to pay a license fee for “free” television, then UK laws should back this up and retain free access for all to our national sports events, without exception.
