FOOTBALL AND CRICKET WORLD CUPS AND FREE TO AIR TV

That this House applauds the coverage of the Women's Football World Cup Finals on BBC TV which has attracted audiences of over 11 million and has inspired a generation of girls and boys across the land; believes that the finals should now be made a listed event just like the Men's Football World Cup Finals so that future tournaments will also be available to the whole nation young and old, rich and poor; regrets the decision of the International Cricket Council and Sky TV, now owned by American media company Comcast, not to offer the final of the Men's Cricket World Cup Final to a free to air channel and respectfully asks them to think again believing that digital and social media highlights are no substitute for the live coverage across all platforms which thrills the blood; regrets that an opportunity has been lost to engage the whole nation in a festival of cricket; notes that 18 of the matches in the cricket World Cup are available free to air in Australia and that down under matches involving the national team and the final in cricket world cups staged at home are protected for free to air coverage; and urges the Government to add future finals and matches involving England to the listed events in the UK not least because of the substantial amounts of public funding which has gone into supporting cricket over the decades.