On the same day the women’s Southern Stars won the Ashes, Channel Nine has been slammed for its all-male, all-white Ashes commentary team, with one commentator decrying it as a “sausage fest”.
To promote the Ashes coverage, Channel Nine promoted their commentary team with a photograph of eight cricket commentators, all male, in a Twitter post on Friday.
Meet our #Ashes commentary team. pic.twitter.com/5OP6KLsqjy
— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) November 17, 2017
“Did Cricket Australia sign off on this sausage fest? Where are the role models for young girls to take up cricket as a sport?,” one Twitter user blasted.
“Cricket commentary team or the next batch of men appearing on The Bachelorette,” another Twitter user quipped about the all-male line-up.
Another joked that the team was indeed diverse, as former Test skipper Ian Chappell was wearing a hat.
Former test cricketers Bill Lawry, Ian Healy, Michael Slater, Mark Taylor, Michael Clarke, Shane Warne and Chappell were among the all-male crew to commentate the Ashes series starting Thursday, November 23.
Writing for News Corp, sports journalist Selina Steele blasted Nine for what she saw as an insult.
“Let’s recap some Southern Stars figures for the women’s Ashes: 4.1 million minutes watched live; 3 million+ video views on social, 236,068 broadcast views — [star player] Ellyse Perry alone pulled over a million views for her double century,” Steele wrote.
“The likes of Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar have been a consistent voice this summer and Nine have also crossed to injured Australian captain Meg Lanning. Wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy is also great for a TV grab.
“Good enough to commentate cricket, but apparently only when women are playing. How can Channel 9 read the room so wrong?”
The New Daily approached Channel Nine for comment.
Cricket’s Ashes coverage stands in stark contrast to other male-dominated sports such as NRL where women such as Sarah Jones, Erin Molan and Yvonne Sampson and Lara Pitt feature large.
Women also have a presence in AFL coverage, with the likes of The Footy Show panelist Rebecca Maddern, and commentator Kelli Underwood, Lauren Arnell and Daisy Pearce.
