David Davies Admits to Special Focus on Cricket in Crown Jewels Review
David Davies has begun speaking to cricket officials with regards to the sport's possible inclusion in television's crown jewels
David Davies, the former Football Association director who is leading a review of the "crown jewels" events reserved for broadcast on free-to-air television, today revealed he has begun talking to senior figures in the cricket world about the contentious issue of whether the sport should return to the list. A panel of former sportsmen, media figures and academics has begun sifting through the hundreds of responses to the recently opened consultation on the issue, which runs until 3 July. Davies has made it clear that the review, the first for a decade, will have a broad canvas but did concede that the issue of whether cricket would be restored to the A-list, which guarantees live coverage on free-to-air television, was bound to form a key part of his deliberations. "I'm aware of the strong feelings about this issue that are felt not just by people who watch cricket but by everybody who cares about the game," he said during a web chat on the Number 10 website. "We have already begun the process of talking to those with responsibility for taking the decisions about the future of cricket's television rights. In particular, we will be talking to the ECB about how they go about balancing the needs of the future of the sport, how to finance that and make cricket available to a wide audience." Last summer, the England and Wales Cricket Board agreed a £300m contract with Sky that renewed the pay-TV giant's deal and gave it exclusive rights to all international cricket played at home between 2010 and 2013.