Channel 4, which bought the rights for live coverage of England home Tests from the BBC in 1998, and whose coverage has been held partly responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of the sport in the UK, will not even be able to broadcast highlights - Five will now do this in an early evening slot at 7.15pm.
Channel 4 has been losing money with its domestic and international and cricket coverage, but still consistently had four times as many viewers than cricket coverage on BSkyB.
David Morgan, the heavily-criticised chairman on the ECB, said: "We understand that the decision to place all live cricket coverage on satellite and cable television is an emotive issue for some people.
"We were also keen to maximise cricket's audience to cater for the many millions of cricket followers who cannot, or choose not to, watch ball-by-ball coverage of Test cricket during the day."
"We have made an agreement that will offer the highlights package to a peaktime audience.
"Five will broadcast highlights from 7.15-8.00pm, a time which is the most popular slot for TV viewing for children and a time when an average of 21 million people watch television - this compares with 5-11 million average viewers during 11am-5pm."
Since cricket was downgraded to a "B-list" sport in 1998 by then culture secretary Chris Smith, it no longer has to be available for live coverage on terrestrial TV, in the way that the "crown jewel" events of the Olympics, Wimbledon and the FA Cup final do.
From 2006, Sky Sports will cover all seven NPower Test Matches, 10 NatWest Series games and all international Twenty20 matches every season until the end of 2009.
It also has rights to international women's cricket, and will cover at least 478 domestic fixtures.
Sky also promises more regular start times for Test Matches, with each game starting at 11am.
In one upholding of the status quo, rights to live cricket coverage on the radio has been retained by the BBC, but with Kelvin MacKenzie's Wireless Group winning non-exclusive rights to Twenty20 fixtures.
By Martin Hemming
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