IMO its better that EA and Codemasters are separate. (a) for the competition, like barmy said, (b) Codemasters make a distinctly different looking product to EA, which is a good thing, and (c) EA don't reach out to the cricket gaming community like Codemasters do, and so I feel as though I would want to be friendly with Codemasters whereas I have no warm feeling about EA.
It's that old theory of "You gotta give the people what they want". All you have to do is ask the people!