David Lloyd, David Gower, Alison Mitchell and Geoff Lemon on the demands and delights of the job
By Jo Harman for Wisden
Cricket Monthly
“As a presenter, David Gower is excellent,” says David Lloyd, who worked alongside him at Sky for two decades. “I have every confidence in him. I’m at ease. I know where we’re going.” Gower gave the same impression to viewers as the anchor of Sky’s coverage: a comforting, familiar presence who was always there but never intrusive. Sky, though, decided to take a different path, announcing earlier this year that they would not be offering him or Ian Botham a new contract.
“There’s no point hiding it,” says Gower. “I’d like to be carrying on for all sorts of good reasons, the main one being I love doing it.” As he re-enters the job market at the age of 62, Gower insists “there is plenty of ambition there – plenty of life”. He (semi) jokingly mulls over becoming master of a Cambridge or Oxford college (“largely for access to the wine cellar”) or a “geriatric” reboot of panel show They Think It’s All Over. He made a surprise appearance on the Today programme before the Ashes Test at Old Trafford, reading the sports bulletin, but he would love to stay in the game. “Cricket has been in my blood all my life,” he says. “And it makes sense to stick to one’s strengths.”