Lord MacLaurin (right) negotiated the exisiting TV rights deal

Former chairman Lord MacLaurin has called on the England and Wales Cricket Board to have the future of the game at heart when it decides on TV rights.

The ECB will on Wednesday say who will televise the sport from 2006-2009, with BSkyB hoping to gain exclusivity to all home international and domestic games.

"I hope that the ECB management are sensible and look at the long-term future of the game," MacLaurin said.

"I hope they balance it between satellite and terrestrial."

MacLaurin was involved in negotiating the exisiting deal which splits international coverage between terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4 and BSkyB.

"When we did the last deal, which was very beneficial to all of cricket, we believed there had to be a balance between terrestrial and Sky," MacLaurin told Radio Five Live.

"Looking at [both coverages] over the last few years, I think it's been very good and I would be very sad to see that balance changed.

"I think there is a big danger, if you went to satellite, of depriving an awful lot of people of watching Test cricket.

England were on the crest of a wave during the summer

"There are rumours in the press it could go entirely to satellite and that would be wrong."

Interest in the England team heightened during the summer when Michael Vaughan's side scored clean sweeps in Test series against New Zealand and West Indies.

And the ECB is understandably keen to cash in.

"There is a huge amount of broadcaster interest," ECB Marketing Advisory Committee chief Giles Clarke has said.

"We have an obligation as stewards of the game to have an open mind to all proposals. We have a game to finance and a game to pay for."

Channel 4 has screened England's home Test matches since 1999 when they ended the BBC's 61-year tenure.

Extending that agreement could cost the ECB as much as �20m, according to reports.

Former England captains Brian Close and Alec Stewart have voiced opposition to the more lucrative option of awarding BSkyB exclusive rights.

"Young girls and boys should be able to see cricket without having to pay for it," Stewart told the Daily Telegraph.

"The ECB have to look at the whole picture. They may be getting a big cheque but long-term, English cricket will suffer."

Close believes that increasing the amount of cricket on satellite TV will have an adverse effect on the number of children taking up the game.

"When kids watch Wimbledon, they want to play tennis, and it's the same with cricket.

"If they can see their cricketing heroes on television, they want to get out there and play the game."