CricViz caught up with Broadcast Manager Srinivas Vijaykumar following the conclusion of the England Test series against Sri Lanka.
Q – Welcome back to the UK Srini! Can you talk us through what you have been up to in the last 12 months since you were over in 2023?
Thank you! It’s always a pleasure to come back to the UK. I came over last year to work on the Ashes for Sky Sports Cricket and the Hundred on the BBC, and it’s been an extremely busy 12 months in the world of broadcast. I spent two months travelling around India working on the Men’s Cricket World Cup in October and November in partnership with the ICC. In December and January, I travelled to Australia to work as the Analyst for Fox Cricket during the Test series between Australia and Pakistan, and then did some remote work from Bangalore for the British radio broadcasters TalkSport during India’s Test series against England. During the IPL I was with Disney Star, the first time CricViz have worked with the Indian broadcaster, before spending June in the Caribbean as a part of our broadcast team for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. It’s been non-stop, but brilliant and challenging to have such different experiences across so many countries.
Q – You’ve just been over for the Test series against Sri Lanka. How was that experience?
It’s always fantastic working with Sky Sports; the chance to collaborate with their brilliant commentators and offer insights to help with the storytelling makes the broadcast experience very fulfilling. Going into the series, we offer the producers and commentators an in-depth pre series pack with insights for each player in the squad, and some major analytical talking points for both teams. On-site, Test matches are easily my favourite format to work on broadcast, with so many stories and narratives to tell over the five days – there’s so much freedom and opportunity to explore things in great detail. As an added bonus being a Manchester United fan for many years, it was lovely to be just along from Old Trafford!
Q – We’ve recently launched our updates to Centurion. Are you excited with the new updates and can you tell us how you use Centurion in your role?
The new updates that have been brought to Centurion are excellent. During the Sri Lanka series, I used the match section extensively; the batting and bowling analysis section allowed me to quickly deep-dive on specific players, such as analysing pitch maps, wagons, beehives. The addition of the advanced analysis section integrates the third-party data from Hawk-Eye which we use as another touchpoint of analysis, looking at – for example – how much the ball is doing through the air, or off the pitch, across the various days of the Test.
Q – What are you looking forward to in the next few months?
The cricket circuit is non-stop! There’s always something else on the horizon. I’m looking forward to the Women’s T20 World Cup in UAE in October; it should be an excellent tournament after strong previous editions in Australia (2020) and South Africa (2023). India’s Test tour to Australia later this year will be another showpiece event with the quality those teams bring to the table.
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