Enter Sybil, saying all the right things. It was like stepping into the East India Club in St James's Square, whereas I'd like to think that cricket coverage on Channel 4 is like stepping into a club where everyone is welcome, male or female, black or white. Channel 4 successfully painted the Beeb as boring and exclusive, and convinced the ECB that it was damaging the game. He also drew a parallel between Channel 4's overturning of the established order and the MCC's decision to admit women members. The fact that the Telegraph employs both suggests it is not quite sure.
Cricket wants to be soccer.
David Graveney, the chairman of the England selectors, has said he wants the atmosphere during the cricket World Cup to be like Euro 96. Whereas cricket used amicably to share the sporting year with football, in the 1990s it has been rolled over. As soccer has become a year-round soap opera filled with fabulous characters and fuelled by satellite TV's millions, cricket has languished, falling behind financially, relegated from the back pages to the inside pages, played less and less in schools, losing its street cred and park prominence. Hence the ECB's quest for accessibility and talk of revolution. At the moment, there is no evidence that the revolution is working.