Sports minister Richard Caborn believes there is little chance of England's cricket fans seeing their Ashes-winning heroes playing Test cricket live on terrestrial television until the current deal with Sky ends in 2009.

Caborn told a Commons select committee into cricket broadcasting rights that he is prepared to chair a meeting to see if a deal can be brokered to get some live Test coverage back on free TV.

But he warned them: ''If you are asking me 'can a deal be done?', I don't think it can.''

Former secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport Chris Smith and Lord MacLaurin, former chairman of the ecb had both earlier told the committee how in 1998 they agreed cricket would be moved from the broadcasting A-list to the B-list.

That was on the understanding the ECB wanted to keep substantial coverage on terrestrial TV. But Caborn described that as ''not a written agreement but a wish list'', and added: ''The world's moved on.''

He also praised, in glowing terms, the way the ECB are using the extra £80m of television money for the benefit of the game.

ECB chief executive David Collier told MPs how, without that money, cricket would be in serious trouble. ''Seeing as that is 80 per cent of our total income it was critical to the game,'' he said.

Collier revealed the revenue is five times more ''in real terms'' than the previous deal and that the cash has been used to benefit the game from youth level right through to the England team.