Jonathan Agnew’s departure as BBC cricket correspondent may not even have been noticed by those listening to Test Match Special. He signed a new deal to stay in the coverage area for four years and will continue to host TMS. It will be seen, heard and less read on the BBC’s extensive coverage of the game (particularly in limited-overs cricket), but there may not be much of a difference on TMS in the short term.
But this news comes at a time when the BBC’s cricket coverage is undergoing a massive change, adding to the situation.
The BBC’s summer radio coverage of cricket in England remains robust and, in fact, continues to expand. They have exclusive radio rights to all international and domestic cricket in England and Wales until the end of 2028; They broadcast every ball of the county game, the women’s domestic game, the Hundred and of course the England men’s and women’s. They are keeping up with the times on this front, constantly bringing in new commentators and keeping up with changing competitions (the women’s home game will be in county hands again from 2025 and the BBC will no doubt be covering that too).
Things got tricky on radio outside the UK summer, as Talksport consolidated into the market and acquired the rights to various men’s tours in the UK. This includes a long-term deal for England’s international players in India, starting with the series earlier this year; A good team that splurged on rights saw only the first two matches on the ground in India before largely moving its operations to London.
The BBC has managed to retain the men’s and women’s Ashes, the crown jewel of overseas rights, but faces fresh clashes with Talksport this year. The BBC’s agreements to broadcast ICC events and England tours in Pakistan have expired. Given that the next round of ICC rights kicks off with the men’s T20 World Cup in June and the England men tour Pakistan for three Tests in October, Talksport will undoubtedly be interested in both. The BBC’s budget for human rights packages like this depends on what happens elsewhere in sports, but they were in tight competition for India to do it again.
Things are sticky on the TV side, too. The ECB, under the leadership of Tom Harrison, fought tooth and nail to return cricket to the BBC more than five years ago, but after just one rights cycle the status of the game is uncertain. The BBC has the rights to broadcast a range of cricket nuggets: the night’s international highlights, a handful of men’s and women’s T20 internationals and eight matches in each Hundred competition. That deal expires this summer, and they will face competition from other free-to-air publishers for some or all of that content. They are seen as favorites to retain the rights, but perhaps only at a lower price than they signed last time.
There is a change behind the scenes. Long-serving TMS producer Adam Mountford has been promoted to head of cricket for the next six months. The position was vacated last summer by Stephen Lyle, who was expected to replace outgoing football coach Barbara Slater as head of sport.
Mountford will now oversee the BBC’s cricket output – including deciding how to replace Agnew as correspondent – but is also likely to continue presenting TMS’s daily coverage wherever possible.
Exactly what roles need to be filled and who will fill them may not be decided until later this year, when the BBC will know exactly what cricket it should broadcast. If they retain all the rights they have now, you can expect a full-time head of cricket, a new cricket correspondent and perhaps even a new TMS producer (there were only two of these, Mountford and Peter Baxter, who hired Agnew). last 50 years).
The role of reporter at the BBC can mean many things. Agnew, for example, as a former player, is very different as a cricket correspondent to the younger Chris Jones, a versatile journalist and broadcasting officer who also worked as a rugby correspondent. The two sports vary widely in the volume of live coverage they offer (80 minutes a week compared to recent days), but their audiences overlap and it would be no surprise if the role of the cricket reporter becomes a bit newer after Agnew.
The end of the Agnew era is still far away; We expect to hear his excellent commentary on England Tests in the near future. But his final year as reporter coincides with a crucial year for the future of the company’s cricket reporting.