Sky Sports behind ECB's move to move forward Ashes 2023 to avoid a clash with Premier League

The Hundred takes place in August (PC: Twitter)

Recently, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) took a controversial decision to move forward Ashes 2023 by one month, and will now end in July. 

It was being speculated that ECB is wanting to keep English red-ball players available for their showpiece event The Hundred, which takes place in August.

Currently, the likes of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow are featuring in a red-ball series against South Africa, and could not mark their presence in the ongoing Hundred men's competition.

However, the report in Daily Mail states that the broadcaster Sky Sports requested the ECB to stop staging international matches in August to avoid a clash with their Premier League football coverage. 

Furthermore, the 2023-2027 Future Tours Programme of England team also consists of no international matches in the month of August. 

Sky Sports wants a clear window between prime cricket and football offerings

Last month, Sky Sports signed a £880million contract to broadcast England's home matches from 2025-2028. The deal certainly gives them a hold over the scheduling of the cricket matches at a certain time frame, based on their other commitments as well. 

The major chunk of Sky's summer marketing and promotion relied on the return of the Premier League, which commenced on August 5 this year. 

The executives of Sky Sports wants the premium cricket series/ tournament to be finished earlier in the summer, which would help them to broadcast Premier League in a grand manner. 

Meanwhile, ECB agreed on Sky's demand, which will also help them to organize Hundred Men's competition, with the presence of all English players in August. 

Read more: Yuzvendra Chahal candidly speaks about his exclusion from T20 World Cup 2021