{"id":242644,"date":"2025-11-04T04:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T04:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242644\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T04:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T04:27:12","slug":"bbc-announces-ashes-pundits-line-up-as-big-names-left-out-of-coverage-cricket-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242644\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC announces Ashes pundits line-up as big names left out of coverage | Cricket | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC<\/a> have announced their pundit and production line-up for the Ashes<\/a> this year, which gets underway in Perth on November 21. The first Test will take place at the Optus Stadium, marking the first time a home series will commence away from The Gabba for Australia since 1982-83.<\/p>\n

The Beeb will be fully in place for the Test, which kickstarts one of the most highly anticipated series in recent history, considering England<\/a> captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum\u2019s plans being catered to the Ashes, which led to the international retirement of all-time leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/a> are committing to covering every ball and big moment on the radio with full ball-by-ball commentary live from Down Under.<\/p>\n

In addition to radio coverage, daily highlights will be on BBC<\/a> iPlayer at 5pm each day.<\/p>\n

However, there will be a significant change from the previous Ashes\u2019 coverage, with four members not appearing to be taking part.<\/p>\n

Chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew will continue to lead the coverage, alongside England captain Michael Vaughan, Australian legend Glenn McGrath, Simon Mann, Phil Tufnell, Alex Hartley, and Jim Maxwell.<\/p>\n

Andy Zaltzman will be a frequent voice on the coverage, while Eleanor Oldroyd will present 5 Live Breakfast live from Australia and reports across test Match Special through the series.<\/p>\n

James Anderson will join Greg James and Felix White for the Tailenders Ashes Specials.<\/p>\n

During play, live commentary will take place on 5 Sports Extra and BBC<\/a> Sounds, with columns from McGrath, Agnew and Steven Finn alongside on-the-ground coverage from Stephan Shemilt.<\/p>\n

Hartley will lead a daily Ashes debrief with guests on iPlayer, alongside the TMS Podcast with Agnew, Vaughan and guests.<\/p>\n

But iconic commentator Daniel Norcross will not be on the airwaves, according to a recent announcement, despite still working regularly for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Former Australian cricketer Jason Gillespie was part of the coverage for the 2023 Ashes, but will not be providing punditry this series. He was appointed head coach of Pakistan\u2019s red-ball team in April 2024, but resigned in December of the same year.<\/p>\n

Ebony Rainford-Brent, a former England cricketer and now commentator, was not named as one of the commentators for this series, though she still features regularly for the BBC<\/a>. She recently stepped down as chair of the Ace programme she began in 2020, claiming she feels the organisation needs someone with more experience in fundraising to take its next steps.<\/p>\n

Vic Marks, another former England star-turned-commentator, was similarly not named in this series\u2019 line-up despite featuring two years ago.<\/p>\n

Director of BBC<\/a> Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, said: \u201cWhether you\u2019re staying up through the night or catching up the next morning, we have got you covered. The Ashes deserves coverage befitting of its place in British sporting folklore and we can\u2019t wait to bring you every big wicket, innings and story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC have announced their pundit and production line-up for the Ashes this year, which gets underway in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[22816,243,101975,101981,101982,101979,101980,101978,101976,101977,1721,16326,101,26317,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-242644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-ashes","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-bbc-ashes","11":"tag-bbc-ashes-2025","12":"tag-bbc-ashes-2026","13":"tag-bbc-ashes-commentators","14":"tag-bbc-ashes-line-up","15":"tag-bbc-ashes-pundits","16":"tag-bbc-cricket","17":"tag-bbc-pundits","18":"tag-cricket","19":"tag-cricket-news","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-the-ashes","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}