Test match cricket must return to free-to-air television within four years, Midland MPs have demanded.

They call on the Government to ensure some matches were available before 2009 - despite the loss of coverage to Sky.

England's Ashes victory came just as traditional broadcasters lost the rights to show matches at the highest level of the sport.

Channel 4 has won applause for its innovative cricket coverage, but the England and Wales Cricket Board has awarded an exclusive contract for live Test cricket between 2006 and 2009 to Sky.

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It follows the decision in 1998 to remove Test cricket from the "A-list" of live sporting events which must be made available to traditional broadcasters at a fair and reasonable price. MPs have called on the Government to reverse the decision.

They also asked Tessa Jowell, the secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to negotiate with the television companies and cricket board to find a way of providing at least some free coverage before 2009.

And they called on the BBC and other free-to-air broadcasters to ensure they bid for coverage as soon as they get the chance. Coverage of the Ashes on Channel 4 attracted audiences of eight million.

Bringing Test cricket back to traditional television channels could be a popular move but it could also put at risk the Government's relations with Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Sky, and a number of Laboursupporting newspapers.

The Commons motion urges the Government "to safeguard the long term interests of the game by restoring the main home Test match series to the A-list of protected sporting events in order to encourage participation and allow young and old, rich and poor, to view the very best the game can offer.

It was signed by MPs including Daniel Kawczynski (Con, Shrewsbury & Atcham), Paul Farelly (Lab, Newcastleunder-Lyme), Joan Walley ( Lab, Stoke North), Jim Cunningham (Lab, Coventry South), Richard Taylor (Ind, Wyre Forest), Bill Olner (Lab, Nuneaton), Gisela Stuart (Lab, Edgbaston), Lorely Burt (Lib Dem, Solihull), Lynda Waltho (Lab, Stourbridge), Lynne Jones (Lab, Selly Oak), Paul Keetch (Lib Dem, Hereford) and Rob Marris (Lab, Wolverhampton South West).