Sky Sports doesn\u2019t have the rights to this Ashes series because they were again snaffled up by what is now TNT Sports. This isn\u2019t great because not only is Sky Sports\u2019 cricket coverage excellent, but the channels aren\u2019t even owned by Rupert Murdoch any more, so you don\u2019t have to give the satanic old prick any money if you subscribe to it.<\/p>\n
The Ashes on TNT Sports<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to break with popular opinion on this and say that TNT\u2019s coverage is adequate. They show you all the pictures; the app\u2019s annotated timeline<\/a> is great for mainlining all the finer elements of the overnight horror show each morning; and some of the broadcast team have their moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the two non-cricket commentators who have been roped in from other sports, Rob Hatch, the multilingual cycling commentator from Clitheroe, does a solid job. He\u2019s relaxed, he seems to know cricket and he gets on with the ex-pros well enough that they can joke a bit without it descending into that excruciating self-conscious awkward banter you so often get. We believe the other fella is a rugby guy. We haven\u2019t yet formed an opinion on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n One unexpected revelation has been Sir Alastair Cook\u2019s previously well-hidden dry humour. There is something under that bland, safe exterior after all! Turns out he isn\u2019t uniquely badly qualified<\/a> for the role he now fulfils! Rather delightfully, Cook has seen fit to take unnecessary pot shots at all sorts of people this series. At one point he expressed sympathy for Alex Carey for having to embrace Marnus Labuschagne when celebrating a wicket. Another time, you could almost hear his eyes roll when Steve Smith was claiming to have been distracted by some distant atom behind the bowler\u2019s arm. Good stuff, Sralastair! More of this sort of thing!<\/p>\n At the same time, sometimes the coverage makes you want to switch off and go for a shower. Matt Prior hamming up his cheerleading for Joe Root to the max as the Yorkshiremen approached his first Ashes hundred stands out as being an especially grisly passage of audio.<\/p>\n The end of day analysis can sometimes feel like a bit of a lightweight nonevent as well. Fortunately, that doesn\u2019t matter because you can instead watch\u2026<\/p>\n Athers and Nass on YouTube<\/p>\n Sky Sports doesn\u2019t have the Ashes broadcast rights, so it can\u2019t show you the action. It can show people talking about it though. <\/p>\n So it does. And it puts it on YouTube for free<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAthers? Nass? Why don\u2019t you just do your end of play dissections outside the ground each day? We can do some video podcasts between Tests as well. If there\u2019s someone to interview, speak to them. If there isn\u2019t, just speak to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Works for us. Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain are the best thing about Sky\u2019s coverage and really this is them at their best anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n You need authority and gravitas to do daily Ashes analysis and who knows about having a shit time in the Ashes better than Athers and Nass? <\/p>\n Not only have they been there and done that as players and captains, they\u2019ve followed and commented on pretty much every series since. Crucially, they had occasional successful moments<\/a> too \u2013 or at least know someone who did.<\/p>\n All of which gives a lot of weight to their opinions. They know what a bad decision feels like. They\u2019ve had long days in the field. When Zak Crawley made a pair in Perth, Atherton could tell you just how long the gap between two Test matches would have felt, having made an Ashes pair himself in the 1999 Boxing Day Test. (Long. The gist of his words was that for that whole period, the prospect of another duck is the first thing you think in the morning and the last thing you think at night.)<\/p>\n But rather than piss that hard-earned weight down the toilet by disingenuously latching on to controversial angles, picking fights<\/a> and manufacturing polemic to raise their own profiles, the two men instead add to it with their fairness and balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spades are called spades but with an acknowledgement that others might label them disgraceful shovels who should be sacked and sent home. They talk up the opposition too. Every Test match involves two teams, after all.<\/p>\n And they see the funny side of all this. The Ashes is a deadly serious silly game. Hussain can stand back and laugh at how a bad day for England can result in a long line of complete strangers hurling mocking abuse at former England captains in the street. Atherton might just be the greatest purveyor of the wry smile who ever lived.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting sledged here.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not us, you know. We didn\u2019t lose nine wickets!\u201d<\/p>\n Basically, they\u2019re always willing to laugh, without making the mistake of thinking they\u2019re actual comedians. As with their analysis, they walk that line assuredly. Sometimes the self-deprecation tips over just a touch, but only ever for a moment, and far better to relentlessly undercut yourself than go the opposite way.\u00a0<\/p>\n What is this sort of coverage worth?<\/p>\n Athers and Nass are sufficiently funny and serious and thoughtful and interesting that it doesn\u2019t really matter that you don\u2019t actually get to see what they\u2019re talking about, or that on one occasion the entire video looked like this.<\/p>\n They even had a laugh about that in the next one.<\/p>\n They\u2019re enthusiasts too. When big and unusual things happen, they visibly love it. The value of that shouldn\u2019t be underestimated.<\/p>\n Live Test cricket isn\u2019t on free to air UK TV any more, but Ashes tours never were. Free access to this sort of stuff is therefore a total positive, added to which you can also watch different sized highlights packages \u2013 via TNT Sports\u2019 YouTube channel<\/a> or the BBC\u2019s iPlayer<\/a> \u2013 pretty much whenever you want. Things ain\u2019t so bad. <\/p>\n Except the actual cricket. That\u2019s not the best.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/p>\n From what we\u2019ve seen of Ashes coverage in Australia, it is a Western Australian rural drive away from being anywhere near as good as these two blokes standing outside a cricket ground, asking each other what they thought of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe this kind of broadcasting excellence is a direct product of losing pretty much every Ashes in Australia for the last 40 years. If that\u2019s the case, well\u2026 at least we got something watchable.<\/p>\n More Athers, more Nass\u2026<\/p>\n Pretty sure it doesn\u2019t count as a spoiler if we tell you that both Atherton and Hussain appear regularly in our book, The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bookshop.org<\/a> stock levels no longer inspire confidence, so looks like you\u2019re left with the Amazon option<\/a> if you still want it in time for Christmas. (Shame on you for not buying it sooner! (But not so much shame that you blame us for feeling bad about yourself and consequently decline to buy our book.))<\/p>\n Other, slower buying options are available if you click the big banner image below.<\/p>\n P.S.<\/strong> If you don\u2019t want the book, or have already bought it, but you\u2019d like to support this website and persuade us to write more features, you are more than welcome to back our Patreon campaign<\/a>, which exists for precisely that reason.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TNT-Sports-Ashes-1024x576.webp.webp\")
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