The season's first cricket test between England and New Zealand is now underway. This leads me to reflect again on the decision couple of years ago by the ECB to sell the exclusive rights for live coverage to Sky. This effectively excludes me from being able to watch live cricket, and years on I'm still livid about it.

It just seems like such a short sighted decision by ECB. Lots of people who would otherwise watch cricket are now unable to. I won't pay for Sky (over my dead body), not even for cricket. What's more, on Sky it will only ever be a niche sport - whereas Channel 5 were actually doing quite a good job of providing modern coverage. And because it was pretty much the only sport they covered, it received pretty good treatment.

I read something a while ago which suggested that viewing figures since Sky took over the contract had plummeted. I can't help thinking it will be a disaster for cricket - as well as meaning I may never watch test cricket again :-(