'Let's have a last look at that haircut.'' Interviewed after the final Ashes Test by former England opening bat Michael Atherton, Man of the Match Kevin Pietersen duly obliged, raising his cap to reveal his blond-streaked hair.

We enjoyed a good back view of its Mohican style as the spectacular big hitter turned and left the podium at the Oval.

Though he didn't intend it, Atherton's phrase "last look'' had a hidden meaning. For it will be 2010 at least before the spectacle of Pietersen blasting the ball far beyond the boundary will be seen again on any main British TV channel.

The craven sell-out to Sky by the English Cricket Board has effectively snatched the game from the nation at the moment when the breathtaking Ashes series has gained cricket its largest audience since the immediate post-war years.

By 2010, the game will have new players, unknown to most people. We might struggle to recognise Pietersen, especially if he sports a different hairstyle.

Of course, we could follow cricket's new heroes on their county turf. Er, no. By ECB dictat, Test players are virtually reserved for Test duty. England skipper Michael Vaughan rarely appears for his county, Yorkshire. Freddie Flintoff is but a fleeting figure with Lancashire.

Cricket fans are drifting away from the county game because the top players are not on view. Remove them from terrestrial TV and they might as well be playing on the Moon.

Bizarrely, Lord McLaurin, who led the ECB's campaign to get Tests de-listed as a crown jewel of sport, now heads a campaign to restore that status. He claims there was an undertaking that "main" Tests would remain free-to-air.

If there was, little was heard of it when the decision was taken in 1998 - prompting rejoicing by the ECB at gaining access to Sky's millions. But the greed of that move will now cost cricket its best-ever opportunity to re-establish itself as the pre-eminent summer sport.

Partly still on the Ashes. The communal singing of Jerusalem has bolstered suggestions that the song be adopted as England's national anthem. But answer me this: given the modern history of Jerusalem, who would want to build that tortured city anywhere?

Children to be excused homework as reward for not truanting? Of course truants should be given double homework.

But the upside-down proposal by the Government is all of a piece with the topsy-turvy society presided over by New Labour. Run a major company badly for a few months and leave with millions. Work hard as a galley slave for the same company for decades and see your pension shrink or vanish at the end. Great Britain.

To whom are the "loyalists" responsible for the shocking violence in Belfast last weekend loyal? Presumably the Queen. Perhaps she could indicate that she could do without loyalists who express their loyalty with hijackings, torchings and armed riots.

'I think it's terribly important for us to have silence, and for things to slow down just a bit.'' Thus Prince Charles - perhaps just before speeding off in his (not quite silent) helicopter.