YCCC surprised by Davies Report Panel

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Yorkshire County Cricket Club is concerned with the recommendation proposed by the Davies Report Panel to the Secretary of State that future Ashes Series should be categorised as List A events to be broadcast on terrestrial television. Cricket is currently classified as List B with only highlights guaranteed on terrestrial television.

Yorkshire County Cricket Club is concerned with the recommendation proposed by the Davies Report Panel to the Secretary of State that future Ashes Series should be categorised as List A events to be broadcast on terrestrial television. Cricket is currently classified as List B with only highlights guaranteed on terrestrial television.

Yorkshire CCC is not against the principle of the Ashes being shown on terrestrial television as long as all broadcasters are able to bid in a fair and competitive process and as long as cricket’s current income streams are protected. The Club is concerned that broadcasting revenues coming into cricket will suffer dramatically if the recommendation was to be accepted and the income available to first-class counties and to grass roots cricket would reduce substantially.

The process pursued by the Panel of taking the Davies Report from conception to publication has been conducted in a closed manner. Cricket has not been afforded the courtesy of seeing the report prior to its publication and therefore we believe the process is flawed. The ECB has been campaigning for some time that an economic impact assessment should be made in terms of the effect that the recommendation could have on the game of cricket and Yorkshire CCC is shocked that the Davies Report Panel could have taken this decision given the devastating impact that it could have on the sport of cricket in this country.

The Yorkshire CCC is also surprised that the Panel’s recommendation to place the Ashes on terrestrial television has been made when no terrestrial television broadcaster actually made a bid for live cricket in the last round of rights bidding, despite having millions to invest into other sports. The consequences of the Davies Report recommendation could have devastating effects on clubs like Yorkshire CCC that have invested heavily in their infrastructure and taken on considerable debt in the process to protect and preserve the game for generations to come. It is likely that if the broadcast income were to be drastically reduced (which is a real threat if the Ashes were to become a List A event) that Clubs like Yorkshire CCC would experience serious financial difficulties which would result in a reduction in our cost base. This would include redundancies across both playing and administration staff as well as a scaling back on the development of up and coming cricketing talent.

Colin Graves, Yorkshire ’s Chairman, said: “As a Club we fully support the ECB’s response to the Davies Report. It is essential for cricket that a competitive bidding process remains, particularly as terrestrial television companies have openly stated that they have no real interest in broadcasting cricket and would be reluctant to pay for these rights. The repercussions for our Club and for cricket in general could be disastrous. The Prime Minister has stated that the next decade will be a golden era for British Sport, but if the Davies Report Panel’s recommendation is accepted by the Secretary of State it could have precisely the opposite effect for cricket.”