On the Friday before England’s defeat at Trent Bridge the BBC staged a smiley and slapstick Twenty20 match between Test Match Special and the Tailenders Podcast, with a few famous faces thrown in. Though fun, it was barely benefit-match standard. But it drew 5,000 to Derbyshire’s County Ground and, more eye-catchingly, a television audience of around 400,000 via the red button.
The BBC had similar numbers for the first TMS match in Leeds last year, too – 400k plus another 100k via the iPlayer (around as many as watched the last day of the first Ashes Test in 2015 live) – such that the comedian Miles Jupp in his speech at the Wisden dinner in April quipped about the “frightening statistic” that more people had seen him play cricket on terrestrial TV than Joe Root.
The figures suggest there remains an appetite for live cricket on terrestrial 13 years on from that giddy summer of 2005. Yes, a handful of games in The Hundred – the ECB’s short-form science experiment – are indeed coming to the BBC under the five-year £1.1bn deal from 2020. But would it really be too much to ask for Test cricket to get its moment in the mainstream, too. For, you know, the sport to think just a little bigger?
And so, to the Martin Plan. My proposal is for the ECB, Sky, MCC and BBC – all partners in the 100-ball caper – to discuss having the mid-summer Lord’s Test between England and the marquee tourists simulcast by the BBC. Not via the red button but one of its main channels. And in doing so, make the match an annual showpiece that brings the format (one all four claim as the pinnacle) to the widest possible audience with a brief but generous coat of the corporation’s Wimbledon-style strawberries-and-cream gloss.
This isn’t about reigniting the debate over free‑to‑air versus subscription for all of Test cricket. It is commercial reality that most matches must be on subscription TV. And it must be said, Sky is a fine friend to the sport. It has taken the coverage to new heights in glorious HD with a whole channel devoted to it. If you like cricket and have the means to pay for it, the product is excellent.
This is about just one single shared Test match. That’s all. Why not plant Test cricket’s flag in the middle of the wider sporting summer and, like the fortnight when everyone becomes a tennis buff, energise the public at large? The 2019 season includes the home World Cup and the Ashes. In theory it will be the biggest summer in recent history. But it could all pass the wider public by. A simulcast Test would catch so many extra eyes and also give something back to a traditional fanbase alienated by the sport’s current 100-ball direction of travel.
It has to be Lord’s. It is a magical ground with history and heritage stitched into its red and yellow fabric. Like the All England Club – in fact probably more so – it can transcend the odd rain break or quiet period of play (and yes, I know the recent Lord’s Test was freakishly short). There is something interesting to look at at every turn. The place is dripping with stories. And behind those high walls in St John’s Wood it is not nearly as stuffy as some of the cliches would have you believe.
Picture the scene. Before play, cricket fan Greg James could host his Radio 1 breakfast show live from the Harris Gardens; Mark Chapman introduces the main event; Blue Peter comes live from the Indoor School; Today at the Test after stumps with Clare Balding perched on one of the apartment block balconies overlooking Lord’s. Think of all the famous faces they’ll coo over and interview (but please, no more Nigel Farage on our screens).
Now not all this will be to the regular cricket watchers cup of tea, but cross-pollination is what the Beeb does, and why this particular pitch is about more than live action.
MCC would have to loosen its tie and ensure the Home of Cricket is a welcoming one. The club should move the practice nets from the Nursery Ground to the main square on match days (as occurs at other grounds). Provided the health and safety bods approve, they could sell cheap tickets to this second outfield, get the big screen on a live feed, roll out the picnic blankets and create cricket’s own Henman Hill.
These Nursery tickets won’t necessarily have access to the stands but it will amplify the buzz around the old ground and allow more people to taste the Lord’s experience at a fraction of the prices so often cited as regards its exclusivity.
In short, make the Lord’s Test a midsummer festival of cricket for everyone, seen by the greatest number possible. We need to stop describing live passages of play, shown only to the pre-converted, as a “great advert for Test cricket” and actually create one.
We can keep telling ourselves that “the kids” don’t watch terrestrial television; that they only like clips and streams on tablets and phones. Or we can look at the 6.5m people who tuned in to see Kyle Edmund lose in the third round of Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic – amid a football World Cup that had England v Colombia registering 24m – and acknowledge that a terrestrial Test at lovely Lord’s would generate a significant national buzz. The Hundred will be asking the general public to buy into artificial teams; a helping of England’s wonderfully unpredictable Test side might help address this authenticity gap.
Now this may seem a naive pipe dream. Some stakeholders privately canvassed are very keen but point to Sky’s exclusive rights to home Test cricket. Can they really be persuaded to selflessly share five days of the best merchandise for the greater good? The overall rights value to the ECB may take a slight hit if so, but this is a deal that is nearly three times its previous value. Increased sponsorship leverage may offset this a touch too, while Sky’s stellar cricket package will get significant extra exposure.
There is of course the old question of whether the BBC really wants Test cricket. After all, we are told that two and half hours of The Hundred is as much as they can cope with (despite becoming flexible when John Isner is locked in a grim, endless fifth-set serving battle at Wimbledon).
But perhaps those higher up in the corporation, still nursing the feelgood garden party void left by Bake Off’s departure to Channel 4, can see that one Test a year at Lord’s is worth briefly clearing the decks for. They would be championing the game’s essence and soul, not simply its zany new remix.
This is an extract taken from The Spin, the Guardian’s weekly cricket email. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
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