The final...

What a summer of sport we are having (though the Netball World Cup, being heavily promoted by the BBC, may be a step too far for me). Tomorrow is the men’s final at Wimbledon, between Federer and Djokovic, as well as the grand prix from Silverstone. Whisper it, but there’s yet another sporting event taking place tomorrow, though, for most people, it will slip by unnoticed. The final of the Cricket World Cup, between England and New Zealand, is the culmination of six weeks of matches, as all ten teams in the competition have played each other once, at venues all around the country.

So far, so good. But to see anything more than brief highlights on TV, cricket fans have had to take out a subscription to Sky Sports. The last time cricket was shown on free-to-air TV was 2005, when the country was energised by England’s heroics in the Ashes. Since then… nothing. The ECB can talk about their committment to grass-roots cricket, and getting children involved in the game, but if kids can’t see cricket on TV then that’s all it is… talk. While the power brokers of the ECB have banked the Sky money, interest in watching and playing cricket is declining. However, for this last, one-off game, Sky and the ECB have agreed to show it on free-to-air TV (Channel 4), which sounds to me like a tacit admission that they were wrong to sequester the summer game inside Sky's walled garden. What a missed opportunity!

The Viking is neither the best nor the worst pub in Goole, but it has half a dozen screens for showing sport. I’ll be there tomorrow (alongside tennis fans and 'petrolheads', no doubt, and even a handful of cricket afficionados) to watch the game. C’mon England.

Strange, another pic licenced of the sailing club in Glenridding...