When the names of Jeremy Corbyn and myself appear in the same sentence in a letter to The Guardian its obvious serious matters are at stake. There is of course Prorogation of Parliament but arguably more significant than that are the Ashes.
England’s one wicket victory in the Third Test at Headingley last Sunday inspired by a magnificent 135 from Ben Stokes and a stalwart defence from last man Jack Leach was a defining moment of 2019.
The BBC’s Test Match Special commentary was of course superb. Full marks to Jonathan Agnew and the TMS team. Then you could of course catch highlights on Channel 5 or watch short clips on the web via you smartphone. There was also a capacity crowd.
But when it comes down to it the game was shown on Sky TV for subscribers only and that meant that the audience that actually got to see it was very limited. If the letter writer below is correct it was in fact only half of that which saw the first of the new series of Peaky Blinders
Jeremy Corbyn complained that cricket should be free to air. Johnson of course said nothing on that and neither did the ECB. A commentary on the state of Britain in 2019 I’m afraid:
Further to the comments from your reader Keith Flett (Letters, 27 August), and Jeremy Corbyn’s despairing tweet bemoaning the lack of live cricket on free-to-air television, it is interesting to note that twice as many people watched the first episode of the new Peaky Blinders series as watched the riveting third Test from Headingley, which, laughably, was themed The Participation Test by the ECB.
Cricket participation has dropped by a third over the past decade, and will continue to do so as the ECB has no plans for future Tests, or any proper cricket for that matter, to be shown live on free-to-air television.
Tom Rodwell
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (Guardian 30th August)
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