Isa Tara Guha (born 21 May 1985) is an English sports television commentator and radio cricket broadcaster, and former

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 ...

cricketer 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 ...

who played in the 2005 South Africa World Cup and the 2009 Australia World Cup.Isa Guha
ESPN Cricinfo As a right-arm

medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...

bowler and right-handed batter, she represented

in 8 Test matches, 83 One Day Internationals and 22 Twenty20 Internationals between 2001 and 2011.

Early years and education

Born at

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, her parents (Barun Guha and Roma ''née'' Deb) emigrated from

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

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 ...

to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Guha started playing

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 ...

with her older brother when she was about eight and was selected for the Development England side aged 13. Guha attended Wycombe High School, a grammar school for girls, before going up to

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

where she read biochemistry and molecular biology (graduating BSc), then neuroscience (

MPhil A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at least ...

Cricket career

A right arm fast-medium bowler, Guha played

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

CCC and for Thames Valley CC. Guha made her

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

debut at 17 against

during their tour of England in 2002. During that tour, Guha played in the

2002 Women's Tri-Series The 2002 Women's Tri-Series was a Women's One Day International (WODI) cricket tournament that was held in England in July 2002. It was a tri-nation series between England women's cricket team, England, India women's national cricket team, India a ...

and performed well, taking three wickets in England's loss against

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 ...

in the final. She became the first

woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

of Indian heritage to represent England at

and was subsequently named the 2002

BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially those between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has produc ...

Sports Personality of the Year. Guha's career best

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

bowling figures were 5 for 40 in her penultimate Test match against

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 ...

at the Bradman Oval in February 2008, where she took 9 wickets in the match and received the Player of the Match Award as England retained

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

. Her best bowling in 83 ODIs was 5 for 14 against 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 ...

later in 2008. In the same year, Guha rose to become the number one bowler in the ICC Women's One-Day International rankings. Guha was an integral part of the England team which won the 2009 World Cup, later citing this as her playing career highlight. Guha announced her retirement from

international cricket International cricket matches are played between the teams representing their nations, administrated by the International Cricket Council. The main forms are Test matches, ODI matches and T20I matches. Most games are played as part of "tou ...

on 9 March 2012, stating she would continue to play

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for

. Guha with Lynsey Askew shared the world record batting partnership for the ninth wicket in WODIs of 73 runs from 2007 until 2024.

Media work

Guha writes a column for the

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 ...

website and is a

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

commentator. She joined

ITV Sport ITV Sport is the Broadcasting of sports events, sports department of ITV plc, which produces and presents sports programming for the ITV (TV network), ITV network and ITVX. The branding was originally introduced in 1985 as an umbrella title fo ...

in April 2012 as a co-presenter of

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

's coverage of the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...

.ITV Snap up England's Women Cricket Star Isa Guha to present IPL coverage
Total Sport Promotions, 15 April 2011 In 2016, Guha was a member of the inaugural

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 45 radio stations with flagship stations broadcasting a mainstream/classic rock music format in Sydney, Melbourne, and B ...

radio Test cricket commentary team in Australia. In 2018, she was a commentator for

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 ...

for the England/Pakistan Test matches, and was named as a commentator for Fox Cricket for their Australian cricket coverage. She was also a member of the commentary team at the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In 2020 she was the lead presenter of a new BBC TV Test and ODI cricket highlights show. For the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Guha presented a nightly highlights show for the BBC alongside JJ Chalmers. In 2023, Guha joined the tennis presenting team for the BBC's coverage of the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

. She presented a nightly highlights show with Mark Chapman for the BBC during the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Charity interests and philanthropy

Isa Guha is an

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

(or "Supporter") for Sporting Equals and the British Asian Trust. In 2023, she launched the Got Your Back initiative in order to support female cricket players.

Personal life

On 16 September 2018, Guha married her long-time boyfriend, British musician Richard Thomas, a member of the band Brother & Bones. In 2024, Guha found herself in the middle of a controversy after referring to Indian player Jasprit Bumrah on commentary as the "most valuable primate". She later issued an apology to Bumrah.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guha, Isa 1985 births Living people People from Buckinghamshire English people of Bengali descent People educated at Wycombe High School Alumni of University College London English women cricketers British Asian cricketers English people of Indian descent Cricketers from High Wycombe Berkshire women cricketers England women Test cricketers England women One Day International cricketers England women Twenty20 International cricketers Thames Valley women cricketers Women cricket commentators English cricket commentators Sportspeople of Indian descent