Alison Mitchell



Alison Mitchell (b. 1st January 1979) is a freelance English sports broadcaster. She is the first woman to commentate regularly on the BBC's 'Test Match Special', and she is a reporter and commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live and Five Live Sports Extra. 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 ball by ball on ABC Radio Grandstand in Australia.

Early life
Mitchell began her broadcasting life with the BBC as a part-time broadcast assistant at BBC Radio Northampton while studying for A-levels at Wellingborough School, where she is a committee member of the Old Wellingburians. She played many sports at school, captaining the school tennis, netball and athletics squads.

She played hockey competitively, representing Northamptonshire, being selected for Midland Developments squads, playing for the University of Nottingham 1st XI and captaining the club.

She took a degree in geography 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. She also works in television, and has presented sport news for the BBC News Channel. She was Britain's first female cricket commentator, 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 such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Wimbledon. She also presents sport on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. She spent many years as a sports news presenter for Radio Five Live and has also presented the sport for Radio One's Newsbeat, including a stint on the Chris Moyles Show.

In January 2015, Mitchell took on the role of lead presenter of Stumped, the weekly cricket show on the BBC World Service which is also broadcast on All India Radio and ABC Grandstand

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

She has covered England Winter cricket tours to Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa; World Cups in India and the West Indies; World Twenty20s in Bangladesh 2014, Sri Lanka 2012, West Indies 2010, England 2009 and South Africa 2007, the ICC Champions Trophy, three Women's Cricket World Cups, the 2012 London Olympics, 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, 2006 Commonwealth Games 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 Pakistan 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. Alison 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 Sri Lanka to commentate on her first ODI series there.

She was part of England's winter tour to India, which was interrupted by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. When the tour resumed, Alison got locked in the toilet during the tea interval of the Chennai Test.

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

She was Radio Five Live's England reporter during the Cricket World Cup 2011, 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.

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 India 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 and Graham Gooch as part of the commentary team for the ODI between Scotland and India, which was shown live on ESPN and BBC Scotland, produced by Sunset and Vine.

Work outside of the BBC
She continued to cover the 2015/2016 Australia Pakistan series.
 * ESPN Star Sports: Commentator, ICC Women's World Cup 2013, Mumbai. Mitchell commentated alongside Shane Warne at the ICC Women's World T20 Final 2014 in Bangladesh for host broadcaster Star Sports.
 * ABC Grandstand: Commentator, Australia v England ODI series 2014. 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 3rd 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.
 * Channel 4: Reporter, London 2012 Paralympics
 * Sky Sports: Commentator, Netball Superleague, 2014
 * BT Sport: Commentator, WTA Tennis, 2013

ESPNcricinfo: She has hosted the Alison's Tea Break series of interviews on ESPNcricinfo 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 Lords test). Presenter of Alison's Tea Break

In June 2014 Mitchell hosted the ECB England Cricketer of the Year Awards at Lord's.

In October 2012 Mitchell was the floor reporter for the ICC's Cricketer of the Awards in Colombo, televised by host broadcaster ESPN Star Sports.

Writing
Mitchell has contributed to The Wisden Cricketer, Wisden Almanack, The Times, Mail on Sunday and The Guardian. She has written for the TMS Blog on the BBC website.