The County Championship is going to have a Television broadcast of a round-robin match after long as Sky Sports have decided to provide LIVE coverage of Middlesex’ clash with group leaders Gloucestershire at Lord’s in London from May 6.
The announcement was made on Sky Sports Cricket’s official Twiter account on Tuesday, May 4. Sky would basically assist and add to the regular Middlesex CCC stream coverage, which won a lot of appreciation for its multi-camera set up and great commentary during the Bob Willis Trophy last year and in the first four matches of this season as well.
International commentators on contract with Sky like Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain, Rob Key and Ian Ward would join Middlesex’ own Adam Collins and Matt Floyd to provide commentary and expert analysis of the game for all four days.
Atherton while speaking to Sky Sports about the opportunity to commentate in one of the most prestigious and oldest First Class tournaments, said that he was excited about it.
"The Championship has been terrific. These days, with the wonders of modern technology, all the counties stream their games so anybody has been able to watch a county stream,” the former England cricketer said.
"We've seen lots of interesting games, lots of great cricket, some good storylines as well with players coming back into form like young Haseeb Hameed at Nottinghamshire,” said the 53-year-old who played 115 Tests and 54 ODIs for England, scoring 9527 runs with 18 centuries to his credit.
“There are lots going on and the streams have been terrific so fingers crossed for dry weather over the four days from Thursday!,” added the Lancashire Legend who scored nearly 22 thousand First-Class runs with 54 centuries in his kitty at an average of 40.
Gloucestershire in its previous four encounters have always won chasing a total, including the 348 against Leicestershire in their previous encounter. The only match in which they batted first, they ended up drawing it against Hampshire at The Rose Bowl. Middlesex on the other hand have won only one of their four encounters, losing the rest three.