Tennis host Laura Robson in line to present TNT Sports’ Ashes coverage
TNT Sports has lined up Laura Robson to front its Ashes coverage despite the former tennis player having no previous cricket broadcasting experience.
Last month it was confirmed TNT had won the rights to Australia’s home international summer on a one-season deal to show an era-defining Ashes series for England’s Bazball project.
TNT, or its forerunner BT Sport, has shown the last two Ashes series Down Under with Sky Sports’ interest in the overseas cricket rights market waning. It has also shown England tours to Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.
Since signing the rights deal, TNT has been building its team for the Ashes. It appears increasingly certain that Robson will lead the on-ground presence in Australia with final decisions to be made in the coming days.
Robson has become an accomplished tennis broadcaster, working for both Sky and TNT, but has not covered cricket before. She has, however, worked outside tennis having covered last year’s Paris Olympics for TNT. Robson is expected to cover next year’s winter Olympics in the Italian Alps, too.
Robson has strong links to Australia, having been born in Melbourne to Australian parents who live in the country now. She broadcasts on the Australian Open tennis for TNT, which takes place shortly after the Ashes have finished.
Since retiring from tennis aged 28 in 2022, she has also worked in tennis administration as tournament director for the Nottingham Open in 2023 and 2024 before taking on the same role at the new women’s event at Queen’s this year.
In a move in the opposite direction to Robson’s, the former England cricketer Isa Guha has covered Wimbledon in recent years.
Whether TNT sends many others to join Robson on the ground in Australia is unclear. It is understood that rather than taking the world feed (which is thought to be provided by Australian rights holder Fox Sports), it is planning to provide its own commentary from the UK.
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This is a strategy fraught with risk as calling “off-tube” means commentators will be relying on TV pictures that may not reveal the full story – for instance, a shot hit high into the deep that may go for a boundary or be caught by a fielder, an outcome that does not become clear until the camera pans round.
TNT is understood to have sounded out commentators the broadcaster has used before – including Steven Finn and Sir Alastair Cook – about their availability to work through the night from the UK, but nothing has been agreed yet.
It also seems likely that Robson will not be the only non-cricket specialist to work for TNT during the Ashes. The broadcaster is considering using some of its regular commentators from other sports to call the live action.
While TNT has often picked up rights packages in recent years, it rarely sends a full team to commentate on the ground. More often, it takes the local host broadcast. Last year, during England’s tour of India, TNT sent Cook, Finn and host Kate Mason to Sweden to present the coverage because of a lack of studio space in the UK.
