The BBC has been accused of letting down millions of cricket followers after the ECB sold its next wave of live television rights exclusively to Sky Sports. Five will continue to show early-evening highlights as part of the overall deal worth an estimated £300million for the period 2010-13, an increase of £80million on the 2006-09 agreement.

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, called for a debate on the whole issue of public sector sports broadcasting and said that the board had been prepared to listen to all offers, no matter how small, for any part of the package, which included all domestic as well as international cricket.

But the BBC described the criticism as “astonishing” and claimed that the price of cricket is now beyond terrestrial broadcasters. Until ten years ago, Test matches at Lord's were on the list of events protected by law to be offered to free-to-air organisations at a rate described as “fair and reasonable”. The highlight of the package announced yesterday will be the 2013 Ashes. It includes 26 Test matches in all as well as 46 one-day internationals, eight international Twenty20s, the new Stanford Cup, the English Premier League, due to get under way in 2010, and other county competitions.

Clarke criticised the BBC decision to spend money on Formula One rather than cricket. He said: “How many people play Formula One? There are 19 million cricket fans, 2.5 million men and boys and 900,000 women and girls who play the game. Surely they have a right to expect public service broadcasters to mount bids for the nation's summer sport?

“The BBC must answer to all those cricket fans about how investment in sport is prioritised. They make investments in 12 other sports; do these sports attract the same level of participation? The cricket club is increasingly the centre of a great deal of community life.”

Clarke said that Channel 4, which lost the rights after the 2005 Ashes, had not bid this time and that the BBC was still involved in negotiations over future radio coverage. He said: “We held extensive talks with all broadcasters and were determined to be as flexible as possible to allow the maximum number of bids for cricket from all areas of the broadcast industry.”

A spokesman for the BBC said: “We are astonished by these comments from the ECB. We have always said that any bid for live Test cricket would be subject to value for money and being able to fit into the scheduling. In our view neither of these criteria were met. We have consistently argued that not having cricket as a listed event puts it out of the reach of all terrestrial broadcasters. It is absurd to blame the BBC for this outcome.”

Clarke said that a 27 per cent increase in participation since the 2005 Ashes win meant that the ECB needs more money for facilities and coaches to meet demand. Responding to the BBC wish to have Test cricket relisted, Clarke said: “I wish I knew how they would fund the vast array of facilities we are providing for the British public.”

His thoughts were echoed by Clive Leach, the Durham chairman, who was also involved in negotiating for the ECB. “I am surprised and disappointed,” Leach said. “I was in the television industry for quite a few years and I cannot understand the thinking.”

John Grogan, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary BBC Group, said that cricket had been taken off the list in 1998 “amidst spurious assurances that some live Tests would still remain on terrestrial TV”. He called on the Government to “get on with the review of the listed events promised for 2008-09”.

Analysis

Cricket may be £300million richer, but the ECB has squandered much credibility with a messy end to the latest television rights sale. It is unnecessary for Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, to blame the BBC for not bidding when a record sum has been raised for the summer game from Sky and Five, writes Dan Sabbagh.

The ECB made a choice. It opted to maximise revenue but reduce its audience. The BBC and Channel 4 could not compete, unless the ECB wanted less cash by reserving some Tests or one-day matches for them.

Sky's coverage of the first npower Lord's Test against South Africa this summer attracted an average audience of 380,000; had that match been on the BBC or Channel 4 it would probably have attracted an average audience of 1 to 1.5million.

In truth, cricket is not attractive to traditional free-to-air broadcasters. It ties up hours of airtime and is notoriously unpredictable, with early finishes and bad weather playing havoc with the tight schedules that the leading channels run.

The audience is modest, too. Clarke tried to argue that almost nobody plays Formula One, just bought back by the BBC for £200million. However, more people watch motor racing - 3.7 million saw the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend.

It is embarrassing for the BBC that it did not bid, as it repeatedly said it wanted to. But the way the ECB handled the bidding left BBC officials fuming. The BBC tried, and failed, to persuade the ECB to carve out a small package of live matches, perhaps a single Test a summer, that it could bid for.

Some viewers will be disappointed there is no prospect of live, free cricket, but the problem is that there are not enough of them.