talkSPORT announces commentary team for exclusive ad-free broadcast coverage of England’s India cricket tour
- Pundit team includes former England legends David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd, Steve Harmison, Darren Gough, Kevin Pietersen, Alex Tudor and Gareth Batty alongside star of The Hundred, Phoebe Graham & legendary broadcaster Harsha Bhogle
Monday 15th January 2024: talkSPORT today announces the team of experts and pundits providing ad-free commentary across the upcoming England men’s cricket tours of India, after the station recently secured the exclusive broadcast rights to all Indian home cricket until 2028.
It all kicks off with England’s men competing in a five test series against India, starting on 25th January until 11th March, which will be England captain Ben Stokes’ biggest challenge yet.
The whole tour including over 200 hours of live, ad-free cricket coverage will be broadcast from 4am to midday GMT on talkSPORT 2, with selected cricket available on talkSPORT. The Following On podcast will feature exclusive player content as well as behind-the-scenes access published every day of the tour, and there will also be daily cricket content uploaded to our new talkSPORT Cricket YouTube page.
Fans will be in safe hands with multiple award-winning presenters and pundits providing them with all the coverage and content from the series. England legends David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd, Steve Harmison, Darren Gough, Kevin Pietersen, Alex Tudor and Gareth Batty will be on hand alongside star of The Hundred, Phoebe Graham to deliver quality commentary with statistical analysis provided by CricViz. talkSPORT’s cricket Editor Jon Norman will also be delivering expert analysis, as will cricket commentators Harsha Bhogle, Neil Manthorp, Jarrod Kimber, Andrew McKenna and Chetan Narula.
Head of talkSPORT, Liam Fisher commented: “talkSPORT’s cricket coverage has gone from strength-to-strength, and securing this exclusive coverage is a testament to that. Winning these broadcasting rights is a real privilege and the team cannot wait to get stuck into the action in India, delivering best-in-class coverage and content for talkSPORT’s listeners.”
talkSPORT Cricket Editor, Jon Norman said: ‘’It’s incredible news that talkSPORT has secured this coverage – England’s tour of India is one of the most pivotal events in the cricket calendar. With a five test men’s series, talkSPORT listeners are in for a real treat with non-stop coverage from 25th January until 11th March.”
talkSPORT’s cricket coverage is wide-ranging and constantly evolving. talkSPORT have previously broadcast England men’s tours in Bangladesh, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, India, and the West Indies in December. In addition, at the end of 2024, talkSPORT will broadcast England’s three test tour of New Zealand.
talkSPORT last secured the exclusive rights for the India vs England cricket series in 2020-2021. This tour is one of the biggest overseas series, and talkSPORT have secured the rights until March 2028, which also includes a 2025 white ball tour, the 2028 test tour, and covers all international men and women’s cricket played in India.
In 2018, talkSPORT won the Sports Journalism Award (SJA) for Best Live Sport Event for its coverage of the Sri Lanka series, and in 2020 the SJA for Best Live Event for England’s tour of South Africa. The network was also nominated for the 2020 IRN Awards for Best Live Sports Event for England’s tour of the West Indies and for the 2021 SJA Best Live Event for the India tour. Additionally, the Following On podcast was nominated for Best Sports Podcast at the 2022 British Podcast Awards. You can tune in to talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com, DAB digital radio, download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2. talkSPORT is also widely available across the UK on 1089 or 1053 AM.