Steve Harmison runs in to bowl to Justin Langer at the Oval in August 2005. The Australian opener attempts to sway out of the way, gets hit on the shoulder, and the ball runs away to the boundary for four leg byes. The gloomy clouds call an end to the day's play, and with it, an end to one of the greatest Test series of all time.
That wasn’t just the last ball of that Ashes series, though, it was the last time that Test cricket was on free-to-air television in the UK, aside from a brief return in 2021. It means that for almost 20 years, a cricket fan has had to pay for Sky Sports, and occasionally BT/TNT Sports to watch.
