Alison Mitchell is an English Australian cricket commentator and sports broadcaster, working for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, Australia's Channel 7 and the Australian Open among others. She was the first woman to become a regular commentator on the BBC's '' Test Match Special'', and has been commentating on men's and women's international cricket around the world since 2007. She also spent many years reporting and commentating on a variety of sports for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, including Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and Open Golf. In March 2014, she was voted SJA Sports Broadcaster of the Year 2013 by members of the Sports Journalists' Association. She is also the first woman to have called men's

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

ball-by-ball on ABC Radio Grandstand in Australia.

Early life

Born to an Australian mother and English father, Mitchell began her broadcasting career with the

as a part-time broadcast assistant at BBC Radio Northampton while studying for

A-levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

at Wellingborough School, where she later spent time as a committee member of the Old Wellingburians. She played many sports at school, captaining the tennis, netball and athletics squads. She played hockey competitively, representing Northamptonshire, being selected for Midland Development squads, playing for the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

1st XI and captaining the club. She took a degree in

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

at the University of Nottingham (dissertation entitled "The Impact of Television on the Cultural Geography of English Cricket" 1995–2000) and then trained in broadcast journalism at Falmouth College of Arts. She gained her first experience of live reporting on cricket, football and rugby at BBC Radio Cornwall before freelancing for BBC Radio Leicester.

BBC career

Mitchell has worked across all BBC networks, including Radio 5 Live, Radio 4, Radio 1, the Asian Network and the World Service, and has presented sport news for the BBC News Channel. She was Britain's first female cricket commentatorHappy commentary on our times
Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2007 calling games ball-by-ball. Mitchell specialises in cricket as part of the ''Test Match Special'' team, but she also covers major events for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

such as the Olympics,

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and Wimbledon. She also presents sport on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4. She spent many years as a sports news presenter for 5 Live, and has also presented the sport for Radio 1's '' Newsbeat'', including a stint on '' The Chris Moyles Show''. In January 2015, Mitchell took on the role of lead presenter of ''

Stumped Stumped is a method of Dismissal (cricket), dismissing a batter (cricket), batter in cricket, in which the wicket-keeper put down the wicket, puts down the wicket of the Glossary_of_cricket_terms#S, striker while the striker is out of their Bat ...

'', the weekly cricket show on the BBC World Service which is also broadcast on and produced in partnership with

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

and ABC Radio Grandstand.

BBC Radio

Mitchell joined the BBC Asian Network as staff in 2002, mainly covering international cricket, and did her first broadcast for Radio 5 Live in 2003. She has covered

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Winter cricket tours to Australia,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and South Africa; World Cups in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

; World Twenty20s in Bangladesh 2014, Sri Lanka 2012, West Indies 2010, England 2009 and South Africa 2007, the ICC Champions Trophy, four Women's Cricket World Cups, the 2012 London Olympics, 2008 Beijing Olympics,

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

in Glasgow,

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

in Melbourne, the Wimbledon, the French Open, Australian Open, four World Gymnastics Championships and two World Snooker Championships. She commentated on Ireland's historic victory over

at the 2007 Cricket World Cup, and was the last person to interview Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer before his sudden death in the

Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel is a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, located a81 Knutsford Boulevardin the financial and business district of the city. A noted landmark, the hotel is 17 stories high. See also * List of hotels in Jamaica References E ...

. She reported on his death for all BBC Networks, and was the only BBC reporter in Kingston when police announced a murder investigation. She made her full England commentary debut at the 2007 World Twenty20 in South Africa with Jonathan Agnew for Test Match Special (she seemed to get on well with summariser Ian Chappell when she mentioned that her mother is Australian). She then flew on to

to commentate on her first ODI series there. She commentated for both

and ABC radio during the England men's ODI tour of Australia in January 2014, working with Jim Maxwell and Kerry O'Keeffe. She also commentated for the ABC at the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup Final in Sydney, which was won by

. She was BBC Radio 5 Live's England reporter during the

2011 Cricket World Cup The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was the tenth Cricket World Cup. It was played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, while the latter hosted World Cup matches for the first time. India won the tournament, defeating Sri Lanka by six wickets in the 2 ...

, commentating on a number of World Cup matches for Test Match Special and following India through from the quarter-finals to their eventual triumph in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. She has presented a number of 'specials' for BBC Radio 5 Live, including ''Black Armband: The Full Story''. Mitchell was a boundary commentator at the momentous Oval Test when England regained the Ashes in 2005.

BBC Television

Mitchell has presented sport for the BBC News Channel. She presented online video diaries from England's winter tour to

in 2008, and ''The Mitchell Show'' online video series during the 2009 Ashes. She made her TV cricket commentary debut in 2007, joining Jonathan Agnew,

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

and Graham Gooch as part of the commentary team for the ODI between

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

, which was shown live on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

, produced by Sunset + Vine.

Work outside the BBC

* ESPN Star Sports: Commentator, ICC Women's World Cup 2013, Mumbai. Mitchell commentated alongside

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer whose career ran from 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...

at the ICC Women's World T20 Final 2014 in Bangladesh for host broadcaster Star Sports. * ABC Radio Grandstand: Mitchell became the first woman to call men's cricket ball-by-ball on the ABC in Australia when she joined the team for the third ODI at the SCG in January 2014. She was well-received as a full member of the commentary team for the historic day/night Test match between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in November 2015, and rejoined the ABC for Pakistan's Test series against Australia in 2016–17, the 2017-18 Ashes Test series and the 2018-19 Australia v India and Australia v Sri Lanka series. *

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

: Reporter, London 2012 Paralympics * Channel 7: Appointed in 2018 as one of the three lead ball-by-ball callers for Men's (all) and Women's (v England) Test Matches. *

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

: Commentator, Netball Superleague, 2014 * BT Sport: Commentator, WTA Tennis, 2013. Commentator, Ashes Test Series 2017–18. Mitchell became the first female commentator to call an English Test Series on television for a British Home broadcaster. * Australian Open: Commentator for world feed coverage on Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena matches. *

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

: She has hosted the ''Alison's Tea Break'' series of interviews on

since May 2012. It appears regularly during overseas TV coverage in the tea break of home and away Test matches—for example in May 2013, when she interviewed Tim Southee (prerecorded in Leicestershire and shown on the fourth day of the

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

Test). In June 2014 Mitchell hosted the ECB England Cricketer of the Year Awards at Lord's, and was part of the hosting team for the ICC Annual Awards in Sri Lanka. * In 2018 she joined Channel 5's ''Cricket on 5'' team as Channel 5 announced their plans to cover England Women Cricket Internationals as part of their cricket highlights deal. Alison joined the main commentary team for men's games (replacing Simon Hughes) and fronted the women's highlights

Writing

Mitchell has contributed to ''

The Wisden Cricketer ''The Wisden Cricketer'' was the world's best-selling monthly cricket magazine. It was incorporated in 2003, by a merger between '' The Cricketer'' magazine and '' Wisden Cricket Monthly''. It is now no longer connected to Wisden and is called ' ...

'', '' Wisden Almanack'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', '' Mail on Sunday'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. She has written for the TMS Blog on the BBC website.Alison Mitchell's Blog
BBC Sport

References

External links

Personal websiteBiography
BBC Press Office, August 2007
TMS Blog from the Boundary and photographs

TMS On The Road – Behind the scenes in Mohali
BBC Sport, 17 December 2008
Relive Classic TMS Ashes Moments
BBC Sport, 6 July 2009
BBC Radio 5 live recall England's Ashes win
BBC Sport, 14 December 2009
Documentary
about pioneering African-American athlete Althea Gibson on BBC 1Xtra, 23 June 2009
Chris Moyles Show Running Order
BBC Radio 1, 1 May 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Alison Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of Falmouth University Alumni of the University of Nottingham BBC sports presenters and reporters BT Sport presenters and reporters English cricket commentators English people of Australian descent Mass media people from Northamptonshire People educated at Wellingborough School Women cricket commentators Women sports journalists Netball commentators