Triple M's Ashes cricket commentator Isa Guha says she doesn't see herself as a trailblazer for female broadcasters despite being one of the few women to feature in television commentary of men's Test cricket.
Guha - a World Cup winner and women's Ashes representative with England - will join Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh, Sir Ian Botham, Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson in commentary and special comments for Triple M's coverage of the 2017-18 Ashes series.
Speaking to Fairfax Media, Guha made it clear she did not want to criticise the Nine Network's controversial all-male commentary team announced on Friday, saying she has the utmost respect for the Nine commentators. Guha said she believed more women would call men's Test matches in the future and hoped for a day when female cricket commentators wouldn't generate news stories.
"Broadcasters realise there is a large percentage of women that watch cricket and it was the Caribbean Premier League that first got me to commentate a men's international T20," Guha said. "At that time not many television companies were doing that.
"It's been great to see broadcasters waking up to the fact that women do offer a different perspective. Obviously TMS [Test Match Special on the BBC] have been doing it for a while, I have worked on that with Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent and Alison Mitchell, who was already doing lead commentary on men's internationals."
Since retiring in 2012 Guha has provided commentary for men's IPL, Caribbean Premier League, the Big Bash, Test matches and international T20 clashes across television and radio.
Guha fell into cricket commentary after UK network ITV contacted her over Twitter about hosting their IPL coverage. Since then she has provided commentary on English men's Test cricket alongside names like Botham, Nasser Hussain, Michael Holding and Mike Atherton who she considers "some of the best in the business".
Since Nine's Ashes line-up was revealed, sources at the network who spoke to Fairfax Media indicated no women were chosen on its 2017-18 Ashes commentary team because the network has a policy that only those who have played in the event being broadcast can commentate on it.
Meet our #Ashes commentary team. pic.twitter.com/5OP6KLsqjy??? Wide World of Sports (@wwos) November 17, 2017
Nine's Ashes line up is comprised of former Test players Bill Lawry, Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Mark Taylor, Ian Chappell, Michael Clarke and Shane Warne. Mark Nicholas never played Test cricket - he had a long and distinguished first-class career in England - but because he hosts the coverage he is considered an exception by the network.
Nine believes this is consistent with how the network picks commentators for their two other broadcast sports which are netball (which uses an all female commentary team) and rugby league (which has women involved in the coverage but not on commentary).
Guha, who stressed she did not want to criticise the Nine commentary team or those who selected it, said she believed there were enough similarities between men's and women's Test cricket to allow her to feel comfortable providing commentary for the upcoming Ashes series.
"Having played [women's] Test cricket it helps. There are differences, but there are still some similarities there.
"The feeling of putting the whites on, the fact that the first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes of every session is absolutely vital so you want to be having the upper hand in those sessions. And then breaking it [each day and session] down into smaller chunks, just the ability to make the batsman play when you're a bowler - these are all things that cross over both men's and women's [Test] cricket."
Melanie Jones, Charlotte Edwards and Lisa Sthalekar were joined on Nine's women's Ashes coverage by former Australian captain and Cricket Australia board member Mark Taylor. Nine said there weren't enough women available for the network to fill all commentary positions.
Jones [61 ODIs for Australia] and Sthalekar [125 ODIs] have both been involved in cricket broadcasting since retiring.
Jones has provided commentary for men's cricket on ABC radio and in the IPL. She also was a boundary commentator in the men's Big Bash League.
Sthalekar has provided commentary for the Women's Big Bash League and international women's cricket on Channel Nine, the Ten Network and ABC radio.
In 2014 Channel Nine made Australian captain Meg Lanning the first woman to commentate men's cricket on the network when she took the microphone for domestic one day games and Australia's T20 games against South Africa.
Stephanie Brantz has been involved in Nine's men's cricket coverage in the past but only as a host.
English broadcaster Alison Mitchell will provide commentary on the Ashes for ABC radio, BBC and English television rights-holder, BT Sports.
Guha said she was looking forward to joining Triple M for her second Australian summer with the network.
"When the cricket is serious and it's a really important time in the middle we focus on that but obviously when it isn't there is a lot of time to chat and we can use that as time to bring the comedians in a bit more," she said.
"We get the balance right between getting the calling of the cricket right but having some fun as well."
