Having been rightly excluded from the national sports academy, English cricket, or rather those who speak in its name, are trying to con Chris Smith and Tony Banks into letting them flog off television rights to home Test matches to the highest bidder, who will inevitably turn out to be Rupert Murdoch.
Tory peer and former Tesco boss Lord MacLaurin, now the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (anglocentrically abbreviated to "ECB"), is pushing through a big shake up which aims to make English cricket "harder" and "more competitive". The initial result of this move could be the sacking of some one third of current full time professional county cricketers. This drastic move appears to have the approval of the Professional Cricketers' Association, one of the feeblest ever excuses for a trade union. The General Secretary of the PCA is David Graveney, who is also currently serving as the Chairman of Selectors for the England team - something like trying to be union convenor and head of personnel at the same time. Graveney was also the chief organiser of the 1989 sanctions busting tour of South Africa led by former England captain Mike Gatting.
In an effort to bounce Smith and Banks into removing home Tests from the list of events (including the FA Cup Final and Wimbledon) which must be broadcast free to the nation on BBC TV, MacLaurin and his henchmen are pleading poverty. Don't believe a word of it, comrades! English cricket has just signed a huge sponsorship deal with Vodaphone, and if it was prepared to introduce floodlit cricket on a large scale and rationalise its own domestic competitions it could enhance the game's revenues and popularity. Meanwhile, ticket prices for a home Test match start at £25, and county membership fees average more than £70 per annum.
English cricket's biggest problem is that its social base is too narrow and too unrepresentative. Denying the bulk of the country access to Test matches on television will only exacerbate that problem. C'mon, Banksie, stand up for the ordinary punter; keep Test matches on BBC.