Thread: Streamers Beware Piracy is 'biggest danger' to cricket- Giles Clarke

Pirate websites the 'biggest danger' to cricket, says ECB chairman Giles Clarke
Giles Clarke, the chairman of the England & Wales Cricket Board, has described pirate websites streaming live cricket as the “biggest danger” to the sport.

Last year the ECB closed down more than 700 websites illegally streaming live coverage of England’s Test series against India.
The sites cut across the ECB’s exclusive broadcast deals with Sky and the BBC, worth almost £300m to English cricket.
The ECB yesterday announced a new six-year contract with the BBC for live coverage on the radio, guaranteeing Test Match Special on the air until 2019.
A new contract with Sky will be announced soon, with another six-year deal likely as the ECB looks to guarantee its income until 2019, the end of the Future Tours Programme - the calendar which provides the framework for international cricket.
But it is the fight against pirate websites which the ECB will continue to wage, working with other sporting bodies and the Government.

"We all have to be vigilant," said Clarke. "There are a huge number of pirate websites that stream cricket on the internet taken from television broadcasts, we and our broadcasters closed down 700 during last summer’s series against India.
"These pirate broadcasters are the biggest danger to cricket because they take money out of the game without commercial benefit to the sport.
"It is an extremely complex procedure to close down websites but it can be done and has to be done."
As part of its new deal, Test Match Special will increase its coverage of domestic cricket and the ECB are working with the BBC to establish a plan to save live coverage of county cricket on local radio which was put in danger by budgetary cuts at the corporation.

problem? Giles Clarke