THE two men at the Kent County Cricket Club helm have given their support to the new £200m deal that will see Sky Sports become exclusive broadcasters of live domestic and international cricket from 2006.

Chief executive Paul Millman and chairman Carl Openshaw both support the controversial four-year Sky deal that sees Channel 4 lose their rights at the end of next summer, when prime time highlights will switch to Five for an estimated £20m.

While acknowledging that weak signal strength in Kent limits Five to satellite, digital or cable viewers only, Mr Millman believes that the Sky/Five bid was the only realistic deal to come to the table.

Mr Millman said: “I know quite a few traditionalists will feel the game has sold out to Sky, but the reality is it was the only deal the game could accept.

“The gap between the Sky bid and the other deals was huge and the game at county and grass roots level would have gone into financial free-fall had we accepted the Channel 4 bid.

“We have had a few letters from members upset that they may not be able to see highlights packages on Five, but I believe in time they will find some way around signal difficulties in Kent.

“This is the changing face of cricket from 2006 and it’s no more than we have seen with changes to coverage of football and rugby in recent years.”

Kent chairman, Mr Openshaw, who also attended the first-class counties forum at which details of the new broadcasting deal were presented, said the four-year contract represents a 10 per cent increase over the existing ‘live and highlights’ deals.

It is an additional cash windfall that he believes is essential to the livelihood of the majority of county clubs.

He said: “In an ideal world it would clearly have been preferable to have retained some live cricket on terrestrial television.

“However, there were no bids from terrestrial television companies which came close to matching BSkyB’s offer and without the funds generated by this deal the future of many county clubs would have been in doubt.

“It would also have been impossible to maintain the current investment in the development of the England team and in grassroots cricket at all levels.

“A strong financial base for the game is essential and I believe that in the circumstances ECB have achieved the best deal available for cricket as a whole.”

The deal will also help maintain the cricket academy and county board structure in place in Canterbury and the majority of first-class counties.

Kent Cricket Board’s director of cricket development, Jamie Clifford, hopes rank and file cricket followers will understand the predicament that faced the ECB and the counties ahead of the contract negotiations.

He said: “It’s no secret that club volunteers within the game’s grass roots feel disappointed that live coverage of Test cricket on terrestrial television has been lost.

“Several complaints have been aimed at the KCB in recent days, which goes to show that the depth of feeling and the power of terrestrial television in promoting cricket to the masses should never be underestimated.

“But there had to be some kind of trade-off between abandoning live terrestrial coverage and bringing in the additional funds to help keep our youngsters in Kent playing the game rather than simply watching it.

“In that regard, I feel the ECB have done a good job because only six months ago the value of TV rights appeared much lower than the £220m that has been achieved.

“At that time I feared the worst for cricket development in Kent, but I’m delighted that after this delicate balancing act we will be able to continue promoting cricket at local schools and clubs.”

Under the terms of the 2006 agreement, Sky will be offering subscription concessions to county members and local cricket clubs and there will be new opportunities to follow International cricket on mobile phones and the internet.