Keep cricket free-to-air!

So England have won back the Ashes at last. I think on balance we deserved it, although you have to admire the way the Aussies fought to the bitter end even though they were clearly the lesser side. In the end, it really came down to that 2-run victory in the Second Test. If we'd gone 2-0 down then, it would have been game over.

But for many cricket lovers, this is a bitter sweet moment, with cricket about to disappear from our TV screens for four years at the very moment it has regained its place in the national psyche.

The blame for this lies squarely with the New Labour Government which has allowed the systematic rape of our sporting "crown jewels" by the Aussie presss baron Rupert Murdoch, the most pernicious influence on British public life over the last 30 years.

Having ruined the Sunday Times, which at one time was the best newspaper in the world, he's now ruining British sport - and New Labour, terrified that he will turn on them in the way he turned on Neil Kinnock and John Major, is letting him do it.

A campaign has now been launched called Keep Cricket Free which aims to put political pressure on Blair and Co to review the deal between the English Cricket Board and Sky TV.

You can find their site and sign their petition here