Annesha Ghosh

15/02/2026

Calling this Rovman Powell v Mohammad Nabi wicker on commentary for ICC during Afghanistan v West Indies ICC Men's T20 World Cup official warm-up at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, India

15/02/2026

Calling this Ibrahim Zadran six on commentary for ICC during Afghanistan v West Indies ICC Men's T20 World Cup official warm-up

13/02/2026

Three and a half weeks. Two ICC - International Cricket Council events. Across men’s and women’s cricket.

Grateful to have worked as a lead and colour commentator, and to handle toss and post-match duties as a presenter, at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier 2026 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Matches at the Tribhuvan University Ground and Upper Mulpani International Cricket Ground decided the final four entrants for the 10th edition of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, to be held in England and Wales in June-July.

It was my first time in Nepal. The warmth, the stakes, the crowd support during Nepal’s win over Zimbabwe and the contests themselves for the top four spots, made it memorable. I hope to be back more often, mic in hand.

From there to the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru for three ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 official warm-up games. Another first visit. Serious preparation and strong competition from Afghanistan, West Indies, Namibia and Scotland, with the Ayush Badoni-led India A also in the mix.

One small exchange stayed with me. Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus (pictured below) noticed the effort to try and pronounce his name with the softer “H” from the epiglottis, rather than defaulting to a hard “G”, during the toss. Later, he even said that if I went with “Ger-rard” he would understand, because that is “what many end up going with not knowing what the actual pronunciation sounds like.”

It reminded me that the basics matter, and that players do notice, even when you are working with them for the first time. :)

So now, it is back to the notebook between tours. Listening to the greats and stalwarts. Reworking pronunciations. Researching backstories and game styles — all more diligently for the next time I am entrusted with picking up the mic. Nothing dramatic, just putting in the hard yards, as one should, and do justice to every opportunity the industry trusts me with.

Thank you, ICC and all the crew members and my co-commentators involved in both events.

A selection of links from calls from these tournaments that made their way to ICC digital platforms here:

Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi removes West Indies’ Rovman Powell: https://lnkd.in/g2wJSbER

Nepal bowler Sita Rana Magar’s CR7 celebration: https://lnkd.in/gzqyfyM9

USA quick Tara Norris v Ireland’s Orla Prendergast: https://lnkd.in/gtmKHxRv

07/12/2025

BCCI Domestic 🎙️ India international and U-19 World Cup-winning captain Prithvi Shaw was wonderfully evocative at the toss the other day at the Eden Gardens, talking about how much he’s relishing captaining Maharashtra at the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT), the premier men’s domestic T20 tournament in India.

I even joked about his name-remembering skills when I asked him about the changes to his side’s starting XI, and he cracked up. He rattled the names off brilliantly. 🤌

Had a good day at the office subsequently on the day — was named Player of the Match against Bihar for his blistering 66 (30) opening the Maharashtra innings, trumping teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s record-breaking 108* which made the 14-year-old the youngest centurion in history.

Good toss. Riveting match action. Enjoyed calling it all.

Grateful.

📸 JioHotstar and BCCI Domestic

03/12/2025

🎙️Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 for BCCI TV

English-language commentary, toss and pitch report duties (with a smattering of Hindi thrown in) this week at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata during India’s premier men’s domestic T20 competition, currently in its 18th iteration and available for viewing on JioHotstar.

Grateful. Learning. All while “being in the arena,” to borrow from a Theodore Roosevelt quote. In the service of cricket — and sport at large — and everyone who forms part of it.

Thanks to the BCCI and all the members of the BCCI production crew involved in this journey.

12/11/2025

Cricket for the Visually Impaired 🤝 Women’s World Cup
🎙️Six Teams 🇮🇳🇦🇺🇺🇸🇳🇵🇵🇰🇱🇰
🎙️One Dream 🏆
🎙️And a coveted inaugural Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup for the Blind title 👑

Launched on November 11 in New Delhi. 🇮🇳
Action culminates on November 23 in Colombo. 🇱🇰

SBI Foundation | Cricket Association for the Blind in India

08/11/2025

My piece for BBC News World and Asia: Small-town India to cricket World champions: The women who made history

Many women in India's cricket World Cup winning team come from small towns and humble beginnings.

06/11/2025

Not so subtle from someone who likes to keep it subtle: This chaotic moment/picture followed some (heartfelt) “medal touching” insistence from someone I’ve held to the toughest standards across the board over those 60s-and-70s knocks, on Twitter and in my reporting, as well as fireside chats and video interviews for the better part of this past decade 😅

Prove me wrong (send evidence by way of number of tweets and articles and video interviews about those unconverted hundreds) and I will eat humble pie. 🙃

Yes, I am absolutely still keeping count of the ones that didn’t get converted to three figures. I will continue to. It’s one of my favourite pastimes. And... also, my job. (Edit: someone on Twitter/X mentioned minutes after this post was published that Smriti Mandhana scored 11 international centuries since my YouTube interview where she opened up about what she identified as her shortcomings -- still feel it's quite brave of an athlete to do that publicly and still grateful she would say that in an interview with me, on my YouTube channel. (Needless stat: My YT channel now has a grand total of... 822 followers. 😅)

But sometimes, moments like this remind you that the story is bigger than the numbers. The arc is longer than the innings. And number-crunching can coexist harmoniously with medal-touching (geez, still should only be the privilege of the same category as I mentioned in my trophy post with Harman -- players, support staff and their families, including pet dogs). And that the journey is bigger than the destination.

Maturity, objectivity, and inclusivity needn't bicker among professionals who understand each other's work and viewpoints, is one of my key takeaways from this near-decade-long journey.

Postscript: Smriti Mandhana, please keep converting more of those 60s/70s/80s/90s for the general sanity of 1.4 billion people. ✨⏳

November 2-3, 2025
DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

04/11/2025

Much of what I’ve done in the past decade since winning ESPNcricinfo’s cricket commentary contest in 2016 has been a mix of writing, journalism, documentary filmmaking, camera work, editing, media attaché duties, and broadcasting.

I moved from Kolkata to Mumbai in February 2017, when I joined ESPNcricinfo -- in the middle of my first and only season as a cricketer under the Cricket Association of Bengal. Four months later came my first India-player interviews as a multimedia journalist: Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma, at the Mumbai Cricket Association Ground at Bandra Kurla Complex, just before India Women left for the 2017 World Cup in England.

Since then, my path has zigzagged across roles, including being the Media & Content Head for the Indian Olympic Association and Team India at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Through all of it, one constant has been the privilege (and, at times, the pain -- hah, more on that later) of observing and chronicling the Indian women’s cricket team. Each of their stories could fill many books -- of small towns, shared dreams, and impossible resilience. But for this one, I’ll stay with Harmanpreet, now India Women’s first World Cup-winning captain.

I’ve seen her lead, lose, rebuild, do all of that… but mostly LOSE. Birmingham 2022. Cape Town 2023. Sharjah 2024.

As a storyteller, I’ve been trained to stay objective, to keep a certain distance. And I have, in my work -- chronicling things as they are. But on Nov 3 at 2:15 am, a few hours after the Indian Women's Cricket Team won their maiden cricket World Cup, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, a WhatsApp message arrived from a journalist-friend, Zenia D'Cunha, who had just attended Harman’s post-match presser. "Harman was looking for you," read her message.

I had no idea why.

What came my way soon after was this -- a piece of history, heavy with meaning. Something I’ve always believed only players, support staff, and families should hold. But who am I to reason with Harman on the biggest night of her life? Who am I to keep explaining that I don’t deserve to even touch it, out of respect?

So there I stood, unsure whether to smile or cry, knowing fully well that what I was holding wasn’t just metal, as Harman commanded the onlookers to take photos of the moment because I had refused to.

Bonkers.

That night, it was hers. The team's. The support staff's. And their families'. Always will be.

November 2-3, 2025, Navi Mumbai, India, IC Women's Cricket World Cup India 2025 Final, India v South Africa

06/08/2025