Live cricket could be back on terrestrial TV from 2010

The BBC currently has exclusive radio rights for home Tests and one-day internationals and will broadcast TV highlights of next year's World Cup.

Thompson told BBC Radio Five Live: "I thought that in the last round the amount the English cricket board were asking for the rights was very high.

"Now I think we should look very closely at cricket again."

BSkyB agreed a four-year contract to run from 2006-9 with the England and Wales Cricket Board in December 2004, removing live cricket from terrestrial TV for the first time.

The deal, which will see highlights from this summer's series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan shown on Channel Five, was approved two months later after complaints to regulator Ofcom.

It depends not just on the choice of the sport, but also on how much it's going to cost Mark Thompson

Thompson said the BBC could not justify the kind of funds BSkyB had offered at the time and a fresh bid would again depend on the figures involved in three years' time.

"It's a more specialist audience - it's not as big, for example, as for live Premiership football.

"We have to think about value. If you buy one thing, you can't buy another so what you're trying to do when you're thinking about the portfolio of rights is what's your priority.

"It depends not just on the choice of the sport, but also on how much it's going to cost."

The BBC last screened England matches live in 1999 but a government decision to put cricket on the Group B list of sports meant only highlights or delayed coverage could be guaranteed on terrestrial television.