Liam Plunkett has thrown his support behind the Cricket World Cup final being screened on a free-to-air platform should England get that far, saying the players want as many people watching as possible.

Eoin Morgan’s one-day team booked a place in the semi-finals for the first time since 1992 with a dominant 119-run victory over New Zealand on Wednesday, but fears remain that their rollercoaster campaign has not captured the imagination of the wider public due to the entire tournament being televised exclusively by Sky Sports.

The viewing figures so far have been dwarfed by those for football’s Women’s World Cup – a peak audience of 11.7 million watched England’s semi-final defeat to USA on BBC One, the highest British viewing figures of 2019 – and now Plunkett has let slip possible dressing-room concerns on the subject.

Eoin Morgan vows England will keep up their aggressive approach Read more

When this comparison was put to Plunkett by BBC 5 Live, Plunkett replied: “It’s always nice to be on a bigger platform. Hopefully people tune in and watch that game. It would obviously be great to have as many people watching as possible.

“We feel like we’ve built something special here as a team. It would be nice to go all the way and to have big numbers watching that final if we get through and win. That would be huge.”

Then asked whether the team would implore Sky to show the World Cup final on free-to-air, the fast bowler replied: “I’m not sure they’re going to do it but it would be great for everybody to be able to watch that.

“Playing for England, you’re the pride of the country and you want people to be able to access that and watch that. I’m not sure its going to happen but for the guys, you want as many people to watch it as possible.”

The Cricket World Cup final is being staged at Lord’s on 14 July – the same day as the Wimbledon men’s final is shown on BBC One and the British Grand Prix on Channel 4 – and senior Sky executives had been considering ways to broaden its audience following talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The Times reported this week that Sky has settled on showing the match on Sky One as well as its cricket and main event channels. As part of the satellite broadcaster’s basic package, Sky One is available to around 12 million households – double the number of sport subscribers. It remains a sensitive topic at Sky and the ECB, something highlighted by Plunkett later taking to Twitter to praise the broadcaster and claim he had been misquoted.

England are waiting to discover whether they will face India or Australia in their semi-final at Edgbaston next Thursday and have been given four days at home before returning at the start of next week to begin their preparations. Trevor Bayliss, the head coach who previously oversaw Sri Lanka’s path to the 2011 World Cup final, only for them to lose to India, insists his own motivations to go one better are secondary to seeing his players secure their first 50-over title.

The Australian has been credited behind the scenes for his role in the turnaround in fortunes, with players having privately talked up his calming role during the pivotal team meeting that preceded the 31-run victory against India at Edgbaston on Sunday.

Bayliss, who thinks the late group stage surge has made England “battle-hardened” for the knockout stages, said: “We have probably played our best cricket in the last two games. The semi-final and final is a different level again. We know if we play good cricket the opposition will have to play extremely well to beat us.”

He stands down in September after the Ashes, and still feels his mantra of “aggressive” cricket is misunderstood in some quarters. Bayliss cited the defeat by Sri Lanka at Headingley – a game in which England failed to chase 233 – as an example of the batsmen being too timid in their approach.

It is no coincidence England’s resurgence began when Jason Roy returned from three games out with a torn hamstring to resume his destructive opening partnership with Jonny Bairstow, the pair instantly returning back-to-back century stands from which victories followed.

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Bayliss added: “Against Sri Lanka we got away from the way we play the game, which is to go out and be positive mentally. It is about showing good body language, running hard between the wickets so even if the boundaries are not flowing, we put pressure on the opposition through different means.

“Not once have we ever gone out to make four or 500 as I keep hearing. We just want to put pressure on the opposition with strong cricket shots. We have two guys at the top of the order who do that pretty well, which leads to good partnerships and big scores.”