Behind the scenes at Sky Sports Cricket and how they changed the game
Perched beneath an open flap on the side of the lorry, the beckoning wave of the happy cats immediately draws the eye. These golden knick-knacks, known as maneki-neko, are supposed to bring good luck and fortune to those who possess them, but here, amidst a sprawl of cables, cabins and a whirring generator, they serve a different purpose.
It is day two of the one-off Test between England and Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge and The Independent has been granted a rare look behind the scenes with Sky Sports' award-winning cricket team. For close to two decades, the broadcaster has served as the ECB's primary partner, showing every home international and much, much more besides. This is one of 166 match days to be covered across 129 actual slots on the calendar this summer; it is a hectic time.
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Back to the cats, then, which are used each morning to sync up the slo-mo cameras – a minor part of what is, as almost goes without saying, an extraordinary operation. For the Zimbabwe Test, the sprawl of trucks and trailers fills an empty space alongside the ground; for a Hundred game, with the BBC also in town, the broadcasters will also commandeer a pub car park.
Sky cameras are dotted all around the ground to capture the action (Getty)
Three cameras and their accompanying operators generally sit on the gantry at either end, each serving a different purpose behind the bowler's arm. The rest are dotted around the outfield, providing different perspectives, all overseen by a team of producers, directors and wider personnel. Where once this was done on-site, most is now done at the broadcaster's base in Osterley. To assist with the ease of coverage, cabling is placed at each ground – at Worcestershire's New Road, prone to flooding in winter, this must be removed regularly and re-laid before the start of each summer. Innovations like the Sky cart – wheeled out for analysis – and T20 commentary pod are added to this on occasion, creating a different feel beyond the slightly staid studio set-up that characterised cricket coverage for years.
Little of the wider operation is sighted, but Sky has made stars of its on-air team. Figures like Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton can set the cricketing agenda. Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad is a recent addition after concluding his playing career. 'Coming into the Sky team has been incredible for me,' he explains. 'You leave a changing room full of friends and you come into a smaller version of a changing room. In my playing career, it was all about continuously improving every day, and coming into this role, it's exactly the same mindset. I've loved it.'
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During a Test, commentators generally operate under a system of half an hour on, an hour and a half off. They can be an idiosyncratic bunch. Hussain, for example, hates air conditioning, while Broad can occasionally be prone to patrolling the commentary box in his socks. Given the sheer volume of cricket that Sky shows, a rotating cast of characters is managed and monitored carefully – Ian Bishop has been a welcome addition in every sense as an expert for the recent West Indies white-ball series, while pundits like Simon Doull and Mel Jones are regular returnees regardless of New Zealand and Australia's involvement in the English summer.
The tone will naturally differ depending on the cricket on offer. A broad portfolio, Hussain outlines, should provide something for everyone. 'We have so much cricket and so many different styles of cricket that it should cater for all. The key is to give a broad spectrum of coverage.
Nasser Hussain is a Sky Sports cricket expert (Sky Sports Cricket)
'When I was young, mum and dad asked if I wanted to go to the theatre and I wasn't keen. Now I've got a bit more time, you enjoy the finer things in life, and you do want to go and watch a show. Your time and your tastes and what you want to do changes. If you can get people into the game through white-ball cricket, the IPL and the Hundred, you can take them on the journey.'
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Overseeing all aspects of the coverage is Bryan Henderson, the broadcaster's long-serving director of cricket, and among the more quietly influential figures in the game who has just been recognised with an MBE. Workload management is a key challenge.
'We would love Nasser, for example, to work on every single broadcast we do, but clearly that's not possible,' he explains. 'It's not as exhausting as playing, I'm sure, but they are quite intense days and it can be quite mentally draining working on a Test match. They need work-life balance, like all of us do. But you want your more experienced or bigger names on the higher profile games – it's common sense, really.'
Stuart Broad has eased effortlessly into the Sky team (Getty)
Henderson's planning for the next summer will begin before the current season is even at an end. Once a fixture list is figured out – increasingly complex with some changes to the structure of the County Championship likely for 2026, plus the presence of the Women's T20 World Cup – he will begin a three-to-five-month planning process, figuring out budgets, commentators, staff and some of the technical elements that may enhance coverage.
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The hope is always to stay up with, if not ahead of, the game. While the fundamentals of Sky's coverage remain based around a strong journalistic sense, there has naturally been an emphasis on ensuring that it also moves with the modern world, reflecting the diversity of the audience watching.
'I like the phrase innovate or die,' Henderson says. 'I'd like to think that Sky Cricket tends to be slightly ahead of the curve. It would be rare for us to be accused of being a bit slow to change. Sometimes it's forced on us a little bit, through Rob Key getting the big England job, or Michael Holding or David Lloyd moving on, or the tragic events around Shane Warne's passing.
'I think we're proud of the role we've played and developing the women's game. I think we're probably quite proud of how in difficult economic environments or with different formats and the congested schedule, I think we keep our standards pretty high.' He also spotlights the work raising money for the Bob Willis Foundation in memory of an old favourite, and giving platforms to Holding and Ebony Rainford-Brent to talk powerfully about racism as examples of the wider work Sky does alongside simply covering cricket.
Michael Holding, here with Michael Atherton, was able to talk powerfully about his experiences of racism (Getty/ECB)
Technological advancements are on the way. Hawkeye is developing a sort of virtual reality replay system that could place the viewer, say, in the cordon after a slip drops a catch, putting them in the perspective of the fielder. While helmet cams have been helpful, showing the sheer speed of a game is something Henderson feels cricket is still yet to crack. Broad has eased effortlessly into the commentary box and work to develop the next generation of voices – from Tammy Beaumont to Tymal Mills – has been clear in recent years.
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There is also a need for existing broadcasters to stay in touch with the sport. The digital age has made this both harder and easier, with the advent of high-quality county streaming, umpire cams and global broadcasting deals meaning the amount of cricket broadcast vastly outweighs that of when Hussain started.
Nasser Hussain works hard to follow cricket all around the world (Getty)
'I always remember the comment Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, said after I got the job at Sky,' the former England captain recalls. 'He shook my hand and said, 'well done for the job. Just remember in five years' time the game will look completely different. Make sure you keep up to speed.' Within a year, Kevin Pietersen was switch-hitting Scott Styris for six.
'If you take a month off watching cricket – and I don't for this reason – you end up so far behind. When I first joined, you could catch up. Nowadays, there is a 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi bursting on the scene at the IPL. When Shoaib Bashir was picked, I hadn't watched him bowl in my life, but you go into Twitter and put in his name and you can see his wickets – and that's how he got selected. It's a completely different landscape now.'
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With India's men and women visiting England simultaneously, it is clearly a huge summer, one that also brings renewed scrutiny on The Hundred after the windfall brought by the sale of stakes in the eight franchises. But after a glimpse behind the scenes, Sky's cricket coverage looks in very safe hands indeed.
Watch all five England-India Test matches live on Sky Sports Cricket and NOW from 20 June
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New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
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After provisionally suspending Mykhailo Mudryk in December for a failed drugs test, the English Football Association (FA) has now charged the Chelsea winger for violating its anti-doping regulations. This means Mudryk, who has not played a competitive game of football since the end of November, could now face a maximum penalty of a four-year suspension. Advertisement Although the 24-year-old was in Wroclaw, Poland, to watch Chelsea lift the UEFA Conference League on May 28, he is not with the squad for their ongoing involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup, which is taking place in the United States. In statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the FA said: 'We can confirm that Mykhailo Mudryk has been charged with anti-doping rule violations alleging the presence and/or use of a prohibited substance, in terms of regulations 3 and 4 of The FA's Anti-Doping Regulations. As this is an ongoing case, we are not in a position to comment further at this time.' As per the FA's anti-doping regulations, Mudryk now has 20 days to decide whether to accept the finding and whatever punishments follow, or request a hearing with the FA. Although a four-year ban would be the worst-case scenario for Mudryk, a possible suspension could range anywhere from two years to a month, depending on any mitigating factors. Here, we explain the background to his case — some of which appeared in an article previously published in December — and what happens now. In December, it emerged that a routine drugs test found Mudryk to have — in Chelsea's words — 'an adverse finding' in a urine sample provided by the player. This immediately led to a provisional suspension from Chelsea's first team as they awaited the results of further testing. When urine samples are collected, they are put into two separate containers. The A sample is used for the initial test, and if that comes back positive, they then test the B sample to verify the accuracy of the first result. So, following Mudryk's positive A sample, his B sample was then tested, which verified that he had tested positive for meldonium, a banned substance. The Athletic previously reported that Mudryk returned the positive test for meldonium after being away on international duty in November during a period that saw him feature in Ukraine's Nations League fixtures against Georgia and Albania. Before his positive test became public knowledge, Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca was asked about Mudryk's absence and simply said he is 'out', or that he was ill, without giving any further reason. Advertisement Neither Mudryk or Chelsea have spoken publicly since the FA announced its decision to charge him on Wednesday. In December, the club issued a statement saying that Mudryk 'has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances'. In the same statement, the player said: 'This has come as a complete shock as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules, and am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.' If the charge is upheld, the player's options would be limited. 'If a ban is imposed, he will have the option to try to reduce the length of the ban by appealing the sanction,' says Dan Chapman, a partner and head of employment and sports law at Leathes Prior. Chapman notes that any appeal by Mudryk would be to the FA, though his legal team may also explore whether they can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), which is where Paul Pogba had his four-year ban reduced to 18 months. Chapman says that the 'domestic process is reasonably speedy', both in terms of possible sanctions and any appeal. 'Appeals to the European system are complex, even if available, and will take some while,' he adds. 'The thing with Pogba was that he was of an age where the sanction was career-ending and challenging the ban was his only play. If Mudryk feels that he no realistic prospect of overturning any ban, the situation could change. 'Depending on how long the ban is for,' Chapman continues, 'the advice might be that once the FA process has been concluded, he will need to accept the outcome and that he will still have plenty of time to play after the ban ends.' If the FA finds against Mudryk then, unlike the player, Chelsea would have several options. In the standard Premier League contracts that are in place between all players and clubs, there is a definition of gross misconduct, and being found to have taken a prohibited substance falls under the definition, as it does in accordance with FA rules. Advertisement 'The club, on the face of it, would have a relatively open-and-shut case to say the player is guilty of gross misconduct and, if they wanted to, they could terminate the player's contract,' Chapman says. 'They would need to give 14 days' notice to the player in writing if that is what they wanted to do. 'There is an appeal process available to the player, and we are not talking about an appeal against the drugs finding, but an appeal against the decision of the club to terminate his contract for gross misconduct. 'The player can follow that process, although it is hard to see how any appeal could realistically be successful, if the FA allegations have been upheld.' When Mudryk joined Chelsea in January 2023, he signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract, the last year of which is optional, meaning he could be tied to the club for another six years. But Mudryk would not have the remainder of his contract paid out if he is sacked for gross misconduct. 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Advertisement 'Not many clubs would ever want to do that because the message you are sending future players is that if you sign for us and things go wrong, then we may sue you. This doesn't tend to happen, but it can. The signs so far, and who knows whether this is a justified position not being privy to the facts, is that Chelsea are being fully supportive of their player.' A prohibited substance, in short. Meldonium is a heart disease drug developed in 1970 in the former Soviet Union. It is designed to combat ischemia, a condition where blood flow is restricted to body tissue, muscles or organs. It boosts metabolism and increases blood flow and, by extension, the exercise capacity of athletes. It was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s list of banned substances in January 2016 after its previous inclusion in the agency's monitoring programme the year before. Former Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova had been the most high-profile case of an athlete being banned for using meldonium. A failed drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open led to a two-year ban issued by the International Tennis Federation, with Sharapova accepting she had made 'a huge mistake' in taking the substance. Sharapova told a news conference in Los Angeles she had been given a medicine for 10 years by her family doctor and had been unaware that it had also been known as meldonium, which had been added to WADA's prohibited list in the weeks before her failed test. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced Sharapova's ban to 15 months in October 2016 after finding that she did not deliberately cheat and that there was no 'significant fault or negligence on her part'. 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