ECB chairman Colin Graves rules out return of Test cricket to terrestrial TV

The 2005 Ashes series on Channel 4 drew huge ratings but since then England’s matches have been shown exclusively by Sky Sports.

And while the former Yorkshire chairman believes some live cricket may reach a terrestrial audience, he does not see that ever being the case for England Test matches.

“We’d like to see some live cricket on terrestrial television, but Test cricket will not be on terrestrial television,” said Graves.

“The younger generation do not watch terrestrial television, they use social media. We have to take that into account. It will be a mix-and-match situation for us to come out with the right formula.”

Graves also said that a day-night test match would happene in England in the near future.

The first five-day match under lights took place in Australia last November in their home series against New Zealand and Graves insists it is only a matter of time before the ECB follows suit.

“You can’t turn your back on it – it will happen,” added Graves. “We just have to decide when it is going to happen. We’re doing a lot of work on it and we’d love to see day-night cricket.”

Graves said that Test cricket should be “meaningful” and pointed to the multi-format ‘Super Series’ system which will be in operation for the series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan this summer, with points on offer for each match, as the sort of innovation that is required.

“We have to make Test cricket meaningful and we have to put some ‘oomph’ behind it,” Graves said.

“Test cricket is safe if we do something about it, but I don’t think it is safe if we do nothing. That is not an option. The International Cricket Council are looking at it and the other countries are looking at it.”

On the subject of domestic Twenty20 cricket, Graves is opposed to the idea of franchises and wants to keep all 18 counties involved in the structure, even when the current format - which is fixed to 2019 - comes up for review.

“We want to keep all 18 counties involved,” he said.

“I’m sure cities could be one option, but we have no preconceived idea of what we want. We don’t have a preferred option. We will put them all on the table then decide the right way to go.”

Graves is also committed to the 18-team county championship, with an eight-team top tier and 10-team second tier set to be introduced from 2017 onwards.

He said that “two or three” counties had been saved from insolvency in the past year.