Sports chiefs could challenge ministers in court if pay-TV operators are banned from showing their main events, lawyers said yesterday in response to plans to reclaim the Ashes for free-to-air television.

A legal wrangle looms after the publication today of a long-awaited report over sport on TV after the digital switch-over in 2012.

The government-commissioned review of the “crown jewels” protected under legislation is expected to provoke a backlash from sports governing bodies fearing a drop in revenue.

As well as the Ashes, proposed additions to the list, which already features the Olympics, the FA Cup Final and the Grand National, include the Open golf championship, England World Cup qualifiers and Wimbledon.

A suggestion that the winter Olympics be dropped could prove controversial as London prepares to host the 2012 summer Games. Other events likely to be delisted are the Derby and the Rugby League Challenge Cup final. Horseracing chiefs had argued for the list to be scrapped altogether so that they could command more for the rights to the Grand National, which was watched by 8.5 million viewers on the BBC this year.

But the review panel, led by David Davies, former executive director of the Football Association, is committed to protecting events of a “special national resonance” for casual fans without access to pay TV.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which has a £260 million deal with BSkyB, the broadcaster 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, estimates that it would lose £120 million at the end of the contract in 2013 if Ashes home tests were forced back on to terrestrial TV.

Legal experts said that the ECB could seek a judicial review from the High Court if the grassroots of the sport lost out financially. Mel Goldberg, a sports lawyer, said a High Court action was a “real threat”. He added: “With the Government banging the drum about obesity, cricket has a good argument that it is getting more people playing the sport because of money from Sky’s coverage.”

The review, conducted over ten months, is politically sensitive. Sources said that cricket chiefs had already taken legal advice amid complaints that they had been caught in the crossfire between Downing Street and News Corporation over The Sun’s backing of the Conservative Party. The decision to amend the legislation rests with Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, who will open the review to public consultation over the coming weeks. He would need to move swiftly before a spring election.

This summer’s Ashes series was the first shown on pay TV after all home Test matches were removed from the list in 1998. The move was criticised by traditionalists who argued that the epic clashes between England and Australia should be seen by as many people as possible to inspire future generations of cricket-lovers.

The climax at the Oval this year was watched by two million people on Sky compared with a peak of 7.4 million on Channel 4 for the finale at Egbaston in 2005.

But the ECB believes that a relisting of the Ashes would wreck its strategy to increase participation through investment in youth and community programmes.

It would further damage the finances of the game, equating to about £1 million for each county — about half their average annual income — at a time when many were midway through costly ground renovations.

Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business at Coventry University, said that broadcasting policy needed to be consistent. “Having delisted some sports, thus forcing them to adopt different business models, to then return them to listed status, thereby undermining their now established revenue streams, would appear to be fraught with difficulties,” he said.

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