Cricket administrators need to start thinking long term. That a game like this is locked behind pay-tv in the UK is ridiculous. Keeping games like this away from the general public isn't the way to grow the game.
What more could anyone want from a game, this tight all the way through, tense finish, result not know until it was over, it had even had some big hits, all in the one match.
Sure they probably made a quick buck from pay tv, but what about the long term consequence?
Unpopular opinion; I feel like they ARE thinking long term when they sign deals with pay TV companies. At least financially and in terms of the quality of the package that ends up on telly (and therefore viewer satisfaction).
Now that will get a few here riled up, and I don't necessarily think it's the best thing for the viewers themselves because a lot will miss out, but it's pretty clear pay TV companies will pay more for the rights with FTA. They will also, generally, provide much better coverage than FTA channels. Look at the abortion Channel 9 turned into compared to what Sky offers in England (sometimes dodgy guest commentators like HarbyMerkin aside).
On Foxtel we are going to get a dedicated cricket channel for the summer. On Channel 9 it felt like a vehicle for advertising and egos and that was turning viewers off the games, especially when the cricket wasn't that exciting.
I feel like cricket is kind of in a period of flux. We all talk about growing the game, but at the moment cricket is in a position where it is starting to lose old fans while it struggles to wholly convert new ones to the long form stuff. The hardcore fans are pissed off by shitty coverage and what they still for some reason feel is a flash in the plan phenomenon in T20. Losing those old fans is probably worse than not attracting new ones, especially for the continued survival of Test cricket.
Of course, it's hard to judge here in Australia because the coverage has been with Channel 9 since the beginning of time. Which means that it could just be that Channel 9 itself got stale....having watched stuff on Seven, though, I predict exactly the same advertising vehicle with commentators talking about MKR and whatever new program every few overs. I doubt we get that on Foxtel. So, I mean, from a money perspective, and a product quality perspective, I don't feel like it's a poor decision to take the game to pay TV even though it unfortunately shuts out viewers.
That being said, I'd hazard a guess that most people would pay for a pass to watch the cricket (with quality coverage) the way they do NBA/NFL, so hopefully something like that is in the works.
