of like 8.9 million people, which was the highest it s been for a very long time for a cricket match. so this idea of, you know, - going and reaching the masses through free to air, whether it s the bbc or platforms like youtube in order to access the younger audiences, - but still getting that paid tv - revenue from the likes of sky shows ia rights holder who is thinkingl about not onlyjust safeguarding the future of the sport, - but also ensuring they re getting enough revenue to feed back - into the grassroots of it, as well. andrew, we mentioned covid earlier, it s clearly created a lot of uncertainty in sport. you know, we weren t even sure the olympics were going ahead, and we are very grateful that they are. we ve seen concern over the rugby league world cup at the australian grand prix how wary are sports broadcasters at the moment? it must be a very difficult time? i think we ve actually gotten quite used to bit, to be quite frank. there aren t many events at the moment
i mean, presenters actually that you would ve had in tokyo hosting it from elsewhere? we have scaled down our operation, that s for sure, and i think that s both out of respect for the local japanese community, as well as managing some of the uncertainty about what we could do on site. things like accessing athletes is a bit trickier at this olympics, you know, getting access and moving around venues is a bit trickier. and there s practical examples like the mix zone where the athletes, after they ve won their medal or lost their heat, or whatever it might be, have to walk through the mix zone where all the broadcasters of the world can have a chance to interview them. but just social distancing now means that mix zone is really long, and the practicalities of being able to manage that in a covid environment mean it s more challenging. so there s lots of practical challenges around what you need to do, and we ve had to adapt to those and leaving some people at home unfortunately has
and put behind a pay wall. in hindsight, how big a mistake was that, sanjay? some would say the creation of the hundred is a bit of an admission of the fact that you need to get people back watching cricket in numbers we haven t seen since 2005? well, it s very difficult for me to comment on that deal at the time, because it was a very long time ago and i wasn t around. so there could have been a very different set of circumstances that the men had when the decision was taken. what i do know is that the game needed revenue, and it needed revenue to invest in the things that we need as a sport. that was things like stadium infrastructure, participation, england teams, etc. but it also needs audiences, doesn t it? because without that, where s the future? absolutely, it needs both, and that s why i come back to the balance between revenue and reach being so important. and in this deal that we ve got now, i think we ve got that balance right
whether it s the bbc or platforms like youtube in order to access the younger audiences, - but still getting that paid tv - revenue from the likes of sky shows ia rights holder who is thinkingl about not onlyjust safeguarding the future of the sport, - but also ensuring they re getting enough revenue to feed back - into the grassroots of it, as well. andrew, we mentioned covid earlier, it s clearly created a lot of uncertainty in sport. you know, we weren t even sure the olympics were going ahead, and we are very grateful that they are. we ve seen concern over the rugby league world cup at the australian grand prix how wary are sports broadcasters at the moment? it must be a very difficult time? i think we ve actually gotten quite used to it, to be quite frank. there aren t many events at the moment which are really being cancelled or postponed, i think we are all learning how to deal with running live sporting events in a covid safe environment,
you need to get people back watching cricket in numbers we haven t seen since 2005? well, it s very difficult for me to comment on that deal at the time, because it was a very long time ago and i wasn t around. so there could have been a very different set of circumstances that the men had when the decision was taken. of circumstances that meant that decision was taken. what i do know is that the game needed revenue, and it needed revenue to invest in the things that we need as a sport. that was things like stadium infrastructure, participation, england teams, etc. but it also needs audiences, doesn t it? because without that, where s the future? absolutely, it needs both, and that s why i come back to the balance between revenue and reach being so important. and in this deal that we ve got now, i think we ve got that balance right because we ve got good revenue in order to invest in the game, and as we are seeing through the hundred,