Making Ashes a 'crown jewel' and taking away Sky money leads to debate

On no other issue in cricket is it harder to see the other side’s point of view. If you can afford to pay the subscription — £426 a year — televised coverage of the game has never been so thorough as it is now or, generally speaking, so thoroughly good, writes the Times' Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

It does not convince those who believe that the young are being deprived of the chance to watch cricket on television and thereby become fascinated by the game’s beguiling charm. Since it entered most houses in the 1950s, television has been the main means of creating cricket lovers for life. The 2005 series, arguably the best Anglo-Australian series ever, was, a national event and, regularly, front-page news.