English cricket will return to free-to-air television in 2020 after the BBC won live broadcast rights for 21 matches each summer, including men's and women's internationals and the England and Wales Cricket Board's new Twenty20 competition.
Sky Sports was also successful in holding off competition from BT Sport to retain its position as the main rights holder for the 2020-2024 period, with the intensity of the bidding process leading to a combined windfall of £1.1billion for the ECB.
Live English cricket has not been available on free-to-air since the 2005 Ashes series, shown by Channel 4, and was last seen on the BBC in 1999.
The new arrangement will see the corporation show two Twenty20 internationals, one women's T20 international, 10 games from the new T20 competition and eight from the women's equivalent.
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