It is fair to say that when TNT Sports announced its broadcast plans for the upcoming Ashes series, they weren’t met with universal delight by cricket fans. TNT revealed it will send a team of analysts, including Sir Alastair Cook and Graeme Swann, to Australia, but their lead commentators will be watching on TV screens 10,000 miles away in the UK. What’s more, they will not necessarily be familiar voices: Alastair Eykyn is better known for his coverage of rugby union, while cycling commentator Rob Hatch has voiced many iconic moments of the Tour de France in recent years.
Social media critics were not hard to find, while the Daily Mail described TNT Sports’ “half-baked plan” as a “dumbed-down insult to long-suffering England fans”, and questioned Hatch and Eykyn's commentating from TV screens with an “inability to see anything other than what their monitors are showing them”.
