Don't worry, there's no danger of that. Danny Morrison was on the fringe of Sky NZ coverage for years, but was mainly limited to domestic games and magazine shows. He rarely got international games. He moved to Australia 5 or so years ago and has not worked in NZ since. It's a mystery to us here in NZ that he gets so much work especially in India.

The core of the Sky NZ team is Ian Smith, Simon Doull, Mark Richardson, and Craig Macmillan with Scott Styris and Craig Cumming appearing less frequently.

Listening to commentaries coming out of India, I can only assume that either Indian audiences or the BCCI are looking for something different in a commentator. It certainly isn't the measured approach and balanced analysis that the rest of us seem to enjoy (although the Aussies are veering dangerously in that direction too, too much flashy jingoism from the C9 team these days).

You'd have to expect it'd be Ian Smith who would take the majority of the time in the Sky Box as he has been for a long-time the NZ man they use.

Also no confirmation that Lord Gower is flying out? You'd assume that he will and they'll present from on site with him but not seen that confirmed yet...?

Gower isn't going, neither is Nasser. That's why I thought Ian Ward would be going in the "Michael Vaughan for Sky" confusion on the last page.

it certainly seems I defiantly didn't watch the odi series between England and new zealand properly, it seem i was getting confused with the T20 which had 4 or 5 kiwi commentators alongside 3 sky commentators.

the ODI commentators for the series were
Paul Allott, Ian Botham, Nick Knight, David Lloyd, Craig McMillan and Mark Richardson.

for the test series it will be
Ian Ward, Bob Willis, Ian Botham, Nick Knight, David Lloyd, and probably Craig McMillian and Mark Richardson.
Allot is going home, and in test their usually use 7 commentators, so they may keep 2 kiwi commentators or have 6 commentators.
I didn't watch the odi series, so i got the commentators list from another forum, so it may be wrong.

Athers is going according to Bumble.

Can't speak for fans, but I imagine the BCCI will want someone who will tow their party line

Sorry if I caused any confusion here. I did think it was odd to hear Michael Vaughan's name mentioned, but I thought either I had missed some news about him joining Sky, or it was just David Lloyd talking generally about who else is joining them in New Zealand, regardless of who they're working for (Bumble's not as corporately-minded as some, and was probably thinking of who he can hang out with!) - I suspect it's the latter ... or maybe it WAS me mishearing "Ian Ward" (as mentioned by Harfynn Teuport), though Sky have never used him as a Test commentator before either, as far as I can recall (only as pitchside interviewer in the last year or so).


Probably coz they're both Sky companies, so it's a whole lot easier for them, especially after the slightly farcical situation for Sky UK during England's recent tour of India. I expect they were just glad to see some friendly faces again!


I think I heard him do one stint in the ODI I watched live at the weekend.



As he hosts the Sky NZ coverage (or at least he was when I was over there in 2010), it's probably like Gower over here in that he doesn't do as many commentary stints as the other commentators, therefore would do even fewer for the touring broadcaster. I have heard him in the Sky UK box at one point during the tour to date, but that's all so far.


As Sky NZ have got numerous commentators for their own coverage, they might as well give them all just one or two stints per day for Sky UK, rather than greatly increase the workload for just one or two of their commentators. I expect it works the same way vice-versa too.

Just as far as the Ian Ward situation is concerned, I'm 99% sure Lord Gower isn't going... that leaves Sky UK with no on-site presenter, only commentators/pundits. They could well be presenting from London, with only commentators on site, but if I recall correctly that's different from how they did it for the last NZ tour. I was making an educated guess that the team would look something like this:

Ward (in the Gower role)
Atherton
Willis
Lloyd
Botham
Knight
Guest (Doull?)

I don't know who else could fill the presenter role... Knight maybe? But it's not something he's done before.

Just to clear one thing up - unless I am much mistaken, Sky NZ is a totally different company to BSkyB. They just happen to share the same name - not the same owner or anything like that. Am I right in thinking this? It certainly was the case a few years ago.

The corporate logo is certainly different enough to suggest so. It doesn't have the similar branding of Sky Italia or Sky Deutschland.

But if you watch Sky News NZ, you'll see that about 16 hours a day of it comes from Chiswick, with a further 5 hours a day from Australia.

Its pretty much the other way round Sky News New Zealand is pretty much a rebroadcast of Sky News Australia apart from them opting out to show repeats of Auckland based Prime News during prime time. I think they also opt out to show the local New Zealand Parliament. The time they show Sky News UK is when the Australian studio is shut up for the night and they run Sky News UK overnight

Only Wikipedia I know, but it says Sky NZ is 44% owned by News Corp

. . . which I suspect is similar to News Corp's percentage of BSkyB.

I know Knight's presented some women's cricket before. So much so that he's been seen by his colleagues as something of an expert on women's cricket! So he's not a complete novice in the role.

As for the NZ guest commentator, I think they'll still rotate all of those in the Sky NZ commentary team, giving (at least most of) them one stint for UK viewers per day.

Possibly so. I think I prefer to have one guest so you can get used to their style, but I don't have a major problem with any of the NZ commentators.

Ideal scenario for me is Ian Smith as guest, he is excellent.

Presenter: Stephen Watson
With: Andy Ward & Ryan Constable
Commentators: Jim Neilly & Bryn Cunningham
Reporter: Gavin Andrews

Friday 1st March - BBC Two Wales and BBCi

Scrum V Live: Scarlets v Edinburgh

Ross Harries presented from Parc y Sgarlets alongside Martyn Williams and Shane Williams

Commentators: Gareth Charles and Tom Shanklin

Red Button commentators: Gareth Rhys Owen, Jed Thian and Paul Williams with the RedZone; Lyn Davies and Emyr Lewis in Welsh

Reporter: Phil Steele

Among the guests interviewed by Steele P this evening was a certain Sean Holley, who is now a member of the Scarlets coaching staff. Happy St David's Day everyone.

Think it's 33% of BSkyB

Friday 8 March on RTE Two- Six Nations U20s

Ireland v France- Joanne Cantwell is joined by Mark McDermott to present. Commentary by Ryle Nugent and Donal Lenihan

Definitely no Paul Allott commentating on the New Zealand v England Test series, as he's now back in London, presenting the second Test between India and Australia (alongside pundit Ian Harvey, for the record).

From the Racing Post: SIS has revealed the team planned to front the Sky Sports greyhound show that it will produce after a deal brokered by Bags returns the sport to TV screens next month.

George Irvine, MD SIS Betting, said: “I’m pleased to announce the following roles – presenters Jonathan Hobbs and Darrell Williams, Gary Wiltshire in the ring and Errol Blyth and Tony Ennis commentating."

Jonathan Hobbs has hosted on RPTV before and he is a better pundit than host, I am guessing Darrell will be lead presenter. Wiltshire needs Dave Smith with him I feel. I hope they still use Julie Collier too

Sorry if been previously mentioned, but I'm sure I've just heard Andrew Cotter on the Indoor Athletics, or on highlights of, on the BBC.