England cricket skipper Michael Vaughan has vowed to lead his team out wearing black armbands when they start the first test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Friday.

The move comes in response, not to the death of rap star ODB (Ol'Dirty Bastard) - but because the English Cricket Board have today announced that from 2006 all domestic test matches will be shown live on Sky, the first time that test match cricket has not been available on terrestrial television since it first started in 1938.

Simply not cricket

Speaking exclusively to Mr Damian, Vaughan who once famously said "the achievement that the team have achieved is a great achievement" was slightly more lucid when he told us, "I know we're not supposed to be political, we toured Zimbabwe for Christ's sake, but this move is like losing the crown jewels, only with less diamonds."

Former England captain Alec Stewart, speaking on Tuesday, said: "Young girls and boys should be able to see cricket without having to pay for it." The Gaffer, wiping a tear from his eye added "this choice has now been taken away from them as the ECB has puffed the financial dragon and decided to place all live cricket coverage on satellite and cable television."

The news is particularly galling for Mr Damian as less than a year ago Mr Damian's brother, Mr Sean, received a personal email from England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Tim Lamb, stating that the loss of all domestic test matches to Sky "simply would not happen."

Lamb, who stood down from this role in October was unavailable for comment. At this stage it's uncertain whether he would have been able to stop the move, or whether the rest of the board would have sought to silence of the lambs with some nice Chianti and some flava beans. We shall simply never know.

Posted by damian at December 15, 2004 02:46 PM | TrackBack