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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

cricketer who played in the 2005 World Cup and the 2009 World Cup.Isa Guha
ESPN Cricinfo She cites winning the World Cup in 2009 as a career highlight. She played as a right-arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

. She appeared in 8 Test matches, 83

One Day Internationals A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

and 22 Twenty20 Internationals for England between 2001 and 2011. She played domestic cricket for

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

and

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Be ...

Early years and education

Guha's parents came to the UK in the 1970s from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

, West Bengal, India She was born in

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

. Guha started playing cricket with her older brother when she was about eight, and was selected for the Development England side at 13. She went to

Wycombe High School Wycombe High School is a girls' grammar school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire taking girls from the age of 11 to 18. The school became an academy in 2011, and in 2020 had 1,308 pupils. History The school was the first state grammar school for ...

, a state school for girls. She graduated with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and gained an MPhil in neuroscience, both at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

Cricket career

A right arm fast-medium bowler, Guha made her Test debut at 17 against

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

during their tour in 2002. As part of the same tour, Guha played in the 2002 Women's Tri-Series, and performed well, taking three wickets in England's loss against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

in the final. She was the first woman of Indian heritage to play for England. In 2002, Guha was named

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

Sports Personality of the Year. Her best bowling in 44 One-Day Internationals is the 5 for 14 she took against the West Indies in 2008. As of 31 December 2008, she was ranked the number one bowler in the ICC Women's One Day International rankings. She took a career best 5 for 40 in her seventh Test match, against Australia at the Bradman Oval in

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, about ninety minutes southwest of Sydney. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands. Bowral once served ...

in February 2008 and took nine wickets in the match, winning the player of the match award as England retained the Ashes. She was part of the England team which won the 2009 World Cup. She announced her retirement from international cricket on 9 March 2012, although she said she would continue to play county cricket for Berkshire. Guha, along with Lynsey Askew, shares the world record partnership for the ninth wicket – 73 runs – in Women's ODI history.

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 television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside ...

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. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 L ...

commentator. She joined

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classi ...

's coverage of the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...

.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 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back t ...

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

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

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 highlights show.

Charity interests

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 sov ...

(or "Supporter") for Sporting Equals and the

British Asian Trust The British Asian Trust was founded in 2007 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and a group of pre-eminent British Asian business leaders. The Trust works to tackle the widespread poverty and hardship in South Asia to which millions are cur ...

Personal life

Guha married her long-time boyfriend, musician Richard Thomas who is a member of the band Brother and Bones, in September 2018.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guha, Isa 1985 births Living people British sportspeople of Indian descent British Asian cricketers English people of Indian descent English people of Bengali descent Sportspeople from High Wycombe England women Test cricketers England women One Day International cricketers England women Twenty20 International cricketers Berkshire women cricketers Thames Valley women cricketers Women cricket commentators English cricket commentators