That’s a long way away.” If England actually win this winter the ante may be upped.. It’s quite an achievement to keep the audience.”But Kerr would not be drawn on whether Channel 4’s commitment would extend beyond 2005 when the present three-year, £150m deal ends “The market has changed. We’re on for five days, eight hours a day.”People have more access to satellite, there is still a tendency for BBC and ITV to be the terrestrial channels that people turn to first. “I think there is definitely room for all sports, although people want a bit more diversity. One of the crucial points is not either total numbers or share of the available audience but the fact that there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of viewers under 25 from BBC days.”There has been a great renaissance of Test cricket,” said Kerr.

The cricket coverage can get up to 24 per cent of the audience share this year compared to the channel average of 10 per cent.”The channel’s cricket coverage won its second Bafta award this year and has tried to continue evolving with the hiring of Michael Atherton. For some people it would be what they identify Channel 4 with. That has not been matched by cricket’s figures.”Cricket has been a very prestigious thing for Channel 4. “There has been a decline of around 20 per cent in all terrestrial TV share any way. “It has to be seen in the context of the growth of multi-channel audiences,” said Kerr. An average 1.6 million on the last day of the most recent Test is still down on the average in BBC’s last year of 1.9 million but Channel 4 defends that.

By 12.45, with England trying to mount a rearguard action to save the Third Test, cricket’s audience share was 17.3 per cent.Channel 4’s highest audience this summer was 2.4 million, during the First Test against Sri Lanka, and has regularly been over two million. Returns from last Sunday show that the repeat of The Premiership on ITV at 9.30am had 16.9 per cent of the total viewing audience. Figures for last summer’s Ashes series were down on the previous summer’s series against West Indies and the respected television sports pundit, Paul Fox, recently stated that it had become a minority sport.He was wrong. The pity is that there are no plans for the World Cup to be shown anywhere but Sky.Cricket’s presence on terrestrial television has taken a knock recently. Indeed, the Beeb’s failure to secure live radio broadcast rights for the Ashes – they were outbid by the commercial station, TalkSport – made it more important that the Ashes were seen on Channel 4. It demonstrates that enough people are watching to persuade Channel 4, who have the rights to home series, to stick with the sport through the winter.David Kerr, Channel 4’s head of sport, said: “The channel remains committed to the five-day game and it’s important for the sport that this hugely important series is available to a mass audience on terrestrial TV.”The BBC, who were considerably miffed to miss out on television rights four years ago, continue to keep their bats at home.

Now is the time for the Republic of Ireland to turn the promise that was evident during our good World Cup into actual results and success, and by that I mean winning our qualifying group for Euro 2004.
There is no point in being satisfied with what we have done in the past, and in fact Mick McCarthy, the manager, is determined that we start considering ourselves a favoured team. We are always totally proper in our transfer dealings and resent any suggestions to the contrary.”Leeds moved late yesterday to strengthern their defence by signing the Swedish international Teddy Lucic on loan from AIK Solna for the rest of the season. “Ricketts was offered to us just before the deadline by agents acting on behalf of Bolton, and we were simply not interested in the deal suggested.”We did make an enquiry for Gudjohnsen but never made an offer. Then Real Madrid suggested that the White Hart Lane club had reduced their final offer for Fernando Morientes.”Our supporters are being misled by these criticisms and that is unfair on the club,” Pleat said.