The collapsed lung was really scary. I couldn’t talk … now I’m commentating on the Ashes!
BT SPORT’S ALISON MITCHELL ON HOW SHE ALMOST LOST HER DREAM JOB
This time last year the furthest thing from Alison Mitchell’s mind was her role as the most prominent woman in cricket broadcasting and the ‘overnight’ success story of BT’s Ashes coverage. Back then she thought her career was over.
‘There was a time i was seriously worried i wouldn’t be able to commentate again,’ said the engaging Mitchell ahead of re-joining fellow pundits Geoffrey Boycott, Michael Vaughan, Ricky Ponting and Graeme swann for today’s second Test. ‘i couldn’t speak. The operation was one thing but for six weeks i couldn’t lie flat in bed and i couldn’t talk properly.
‘The idea of being able to put oomph and energy into my voice was impossible.
‘it took me a long time to walk at full speed and i thought, “i need to talk here”. i’d never known pain like it but it’s all good now. The recovery was severe but a year on i’m commentating on an Ashes series and it did make me realise that if you haven’t got your health you haven’t got anything.’
The operation was an emergency procedure for a collapsed lung that delayed Mitchell travelling to Australia for her role in BT’s coverage of last year’s Test series against south Africa and Pakistan.
‘Even when i had a quiet conversation with my mum and dad, i got out of breath. it was totally out of the blue. it’s more common in men than women but if you’re tall with a skinny frame you can be susceptible to it. i had a week in hospital, and the next three or four weeks were scary.
‘i was sitting there not being able to talk or speak and it was hard to think about being fully fit again.
‘i still feel a bit numb where the incisions were made but the op made me better and made it safe to fly. They basically stuck my lung to my chest wall so it can’t collapse again.’
You would never dream she had suffered serious health problems so recently. here we are in Mitchell’s ‘native’ Adelaide — her mum is from the city — contemplating the hugely positive impression she made in the first Test as a woman in what is still almost exclusively a man’s world in the television commentary box.
Almost every review of BT’s performance — stepping into the enormous shoes of sky to cover England in the biggest series of them all — focused on how good Mitchell was alongside the cricketing heavyweights.
‘it’s been brilliant,’ said the 37-year-old. ‘i’m very much a broadcast journalist commentator which is a rarity in television, so what i bring is different to what Vaughany, Ricky or swanny do. i’m not going to sit there and try to analyse someone’s technique but i can draw the others into it.
‘Other than that i try to give a journalistic edge to the words and as a team we’ve gelled together really quickly.
‘We’ve got a WhatsApp group, so lots of jokes fly around. Geoffrey isn’t on it, though. he hasn’t discovered WhatsApp yet. in Brisbane we were all staying in the same apartment block so we feel like a team. i’m really enjoying this.’
it is no surprise to the cricket community that Mitchell has slipped easily and successfully into such a daunting role. While she might be a new face to viewers, she is a hugely experienced, respected and well-liked journalist whose previous claim to fame was being the first woman to commentate regularly on that once traditionally male bastion that is the BBC’s Test Match Special. she will be back on TMS for the second Test, as well as on TV with BT.
HAVinG grown up with cricket — her dad and brother were club players and she learned the game in Adelaide playing with her cousins — she is relishing her role as a female pioneer.
‘At the start of my career i tended to put my head down and do my job without drawing attention to the fact i was a female,’ says Mitchell. ‘i guess you slowly work your way up and it seemed to work. now i can afford myself the luxury of looking back and feeling quite proud of what i’ve achieved and hopefully i’ve paved the way for others.
‘One of the things i’m most pleased about is that there are now other women doing it and there’s no backlash or amazement. i felt under a lot of scrutiny when i first started.
‘When i think back to 2007 i always felt i had to get everything absolutely right.
‘if a male commentator had miscalled a player or made a tiny error, it might have been ignored or just not thought about.
‘But i always felt there were people watching and waiting for any error from me to use it as a stick. it wouldn’t have been, “Alison Mitchell is a bad
commentator”. It would have been, “Female commentators are bad”.
‘So I felt as if I was commentating on behalf of a much broader spectrum than just for me. I felt I had a big responsibility to get it right because if I stuffed up it could be another 10 or 20 years before another female had a go.
‘It’s not just cricket either and I’ve had opportunities through the BBC at the Olympics and Wimbledon and there’s now a large number of females doing football, tennis, rugby and all sorts.
‘So if I’ve played a role in opening that up and showing that women can be successful as commentators, then I’ll be proud to have that as some kind of legacy.’
But surely there has been some opposition to her among the crusty old cricketing traditionalists? Perhaps a gnarled old pro who resents her presence as someone who is not only a woman but hasn’t played the game to a high level?
‘I get asked a lot if anyone has been unwelcoming in the commentary box, but I genuinely don’t have any kind of anecdote,’ she insists. ‘I’ve never felt discriminated against or received any sexist comments.
‘I’ve never even really had any abuse on Twitter to speak of but probably saying that will open up an avalanche now. I’ve just gone about my business and not tried to be something I’m not. I just love cricket and all sports and broadcasting.
‘But I do still get some people, if they are not familiar with what I do, expressing amazement when I say I’m a cricket broadcaster. They ask me if I like cricket as if they’ve plucked me off a shelf and had to explain the game to me. I have to explain it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
‘On the plane coming over I sat next to a man who turned out to be the president of the Australian Truffle Growers Association — it’s amazing who you can sit next to — and when I told him I commentated he looked amazed and said, “But can you call the cricket?” I told him I’d been doing it for 10 years so I’m doing all right.’
There is one question, she admits, she is always asked.
‘People always say, “What’s Geoffrey like?”’ says Mitchell with a smile. ‘I first met him when I went on my first England tour to Pakistan in 2005. I was there for the BBC Asian Network and the
TMS commentary box was next door to us.
‘When he wasn’t on air he would use our box as his green room and I could see him listening to this young whipper-snapper when I was on air, basically checking I knew my stuff. I must have been saying the right things because he started chatting to me and he took Arlo White and myself under his wing. He looked after us and ever since then he’s been one of my biggest supporters.’
As we speak, the great man himself walks past at the Adelaide Oval and stops to greet Mitchell warmly. ‘She was good from the start and she’s just got better and better and better,’ said Boycott. Praise indeed.
AWOMAN who grew up in Northamptonshire after her mother settled there with her English father is genuinely steeped in the game and broadcasting. Even Mitchell’s dissertation for her geography degree at Nottingham University was on television and cricket.
One of her first jobs was as a runner on Channel Four’s pioneering coverage in the early 2000s.
‘I used to sit there listening to Richie Benaud, trying to be a sponge, soaking up as much as possible. He gave me tips I will never forget. Never say “we” when referring to a team. Never say “that’s a tragedy”. The Titanic was a tragedy, he said, and that bears no relation to a dropped catch. Never take yourself too seriously and above all have fun.
‘Richie was a master of the pause and I spent a lot of time over here watching him on the telly.’
She knows all about proper tragedy, too. She was the BBC’s main reporter in Jamaica when Bob Woolmer died at the 2007 World Cup and also reported in Australia three years ago on the death of Phillip Hughes.
‘I was in Australia when Phillip Hughes was struck and came to the game at the Adelaide Oval after his death which was pretty harrowing. And Bob Woolmer was the most extraordinary story I’ve worked on.
‘It probably played a big part in establishing my reputation in the sports room at the BBC. I went from being seen as a youngster to someone who could handle big news stories and it was the following September when I did my first England commentary.’
Now she is at the very peak of her profession and likely to stay there for years to come. So what comes next for the first woman of cricket commentary?
‘Everything is project Ashes at the moment and then I’ll wait for the phone to ring,’ says Mitchell.
‘I fly home to move house in January and will see what 2018 brings.
‘Doing an Ashes tour is very special and it feels like it doesn’t get too much bigger than this. It’s a pinch-yourself moment.’