Sky will continue to show live domestic and international coverage while commercial broadcaster Five will continue to show early-evening highlights at 19:15 as part of the overall deal worth an estimated £300 million for the period 2010-13. The deal represents an increase of £80 million on the 2006-09 agreement.
ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, who called the debate, said that the board had been prepared to listen to all offers, no matter how small, for any part of the package, which included all domestic as well as international cricket.
"Now is the time for a real debate on the future of public sector sports broadcasting, which I know is under consideration and under review," he said.
"All these people interested in cricket buy television licences and surely they should have a right to expect that the public sector broadcasters mount bids for the nation's summer sport? If the BBC is to remain part of this, it must answer to the millions of cricket fans in England and Wales how it prioritises its investment in sports rights."
A spokesman for the BBC said: “We are astonished by these comments from the ECB. We have always said that any bid for live Test cricket would be subject to value for money and being able to fit into the scheduling. In our view neither of these criteria were met. We have consistently argued that not having cricket as a listed event puts it out of the reach of all terrestrial broadcasters. It is absurd to blame the BBC for this outcome.”
The ECB claims that there are 19 million people interested in cricket in Britain, with 2.5 million men and boys and 900,000 women and girls regularly participating in the sport.
