Durham chief David Harker backs deferral of TV ruling

Harker believes a sudden loss of pay-TV money would be detrimental

Durham chief executive David Harker has backed a government decision to defer till 2013 a ruling on giving England's Test matches protected status.

A review panel last year called for home Tests to be available free-to-air, but Harker says the domestic game would not cope without the pay-TV revenue.

"In the short term, I think it's a good thing," Harker told BBC Newcastle.

"That is simply because of the financial shock to cricket had exclusivity been taken away from Sky."

Sports minister Hugh Robertson announced on Thursday that the review process for free-to-air events will be deferred until 2013, following digital switchover.

Harker continued: "The game has become dependent, for better or worse, on the income from broadcast deals.

"In the longer term, perhaps we have to look at how dependent we become from one income and one broadcaster."

Channel 4 were the last domestic terrestrial broadcaster to show live cricket, but their deal expired in 2005 to be replaced by highlights on Channel Five and full coverage on the pay-TV network Sky.

"Many people in the game, myself included, would love to see cricket on terrestrial television, but at a fair price.

"The issue last time round was this idea of requiring the BBC to broadcast games that perhaps they weren't interested in and certainly didn't want to pay for."