Alison Mitchell

Alison Mitchell is an English sports broadcaster. She is the boundary reporter for Test Match Special, and a reporter and commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live and Five Live Sports Extra.

BBC career

She first worked with the BBC as a part-time Broadcast Assistant at BBC Radio Northampton while studying for A-levels at Wellingborough School.

She took a degree in Geography and then trained in Broadcast Journalism at Falmouth College of Arts. She gained her first experience of live reporting on cricket, football and rugby at BBC Radio Cornwall before working for BBC Radio Leicester.

In 2002 she joined the BBC Asian Network mainly covering international cricket, but also boxing.

She was a boundary commentator during the momentous Oval Test when England regained the Ashes in 2005. She then travelled to Pakistan to cover England's winter tour that year.

She is now part of BBC Radio Sport.

During the 2007 Cricket World Cup, she commentated on Ireland's historic victory over Pakistan. She reported on the death of Bob Woolmer for all BBC networks, being the last person to interview the former Pakistan coach.

She made her first formal appearance on Test Match Special in June 2007 as a roving reporter for the West Indies's Twenty20 tour matches against England.

Later that summer she made her TV commentating debut, joining Jonathan Agnew, Sunil Gavaskar and Graham Gooch as part of the commentary team for the ODI between Scotland and India, which was live on BBC Scotland and ESPN.

In September 2007 she commentated on the2007 ICC World Twenty20 matches in South Africa with Jonathan Agnew for Test Match Special (she seemed to get on with summariser Ian Chappell when she mentioned that her mother is Australian).

In October 2007 she commentated on the England-Sri Lanka ODI series in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka Sri Lanka] . In February/March 2008 she covered England's tour to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand New Zealand] .

Later that summer she became a regular part of the [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/tms/default.stm TMS team] as boundary reporter for home Test matches.

She also covered the 2008 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics Olympics] in Beijing.

References

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/radiofivelive/alison_mitchell.shtml BBC press office biography]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tms/alison_mitchell/ TMS Blog from the Boundary & photo]