Premier League matches 'to feature never-before-seen segment' as TV channels look to emulate US broadcasts for new season
Premier League viewers are in for something new when the 2025-26 season gets underway in August.
Liverpool will kick off their top flight title defence in the league opener against Bournemouth on Friday, August 15 with a record number of matches set to be televised over the campaign.
And there will be some significant changes to the coverage with touchline interviews with substituted players set to take place for the first time, according to The Telegraph.
Adopting some elements of American sports broadcasting, cameras will also be allowed on to the pitch to get close-ups of goal celebrations as well as being given access to the changing rooms.
Sky Sports are set to massively increase their number of live match offerings next term, rising from 128 to 215.
They are understood to have trialled the three new features last season.
There will be certain restrictions with cameras not allowed while the manager is talking to his players.
They will also only be allowed to enter the field for a matter of seconds following goals and at no other times during the game.
TNT will also retain their package of 52 games with the new Premier League TV rights deal worth a record £6.7bn over the next four seasons.
The deal includes the BBC continuing to show highlights on Match of the Day.
The top flight said the deal, which covers the four years from the 2025-26 season, is the 'largest sports media rights deal ever concluded in the UK'.
The Saturday 3pm blackout will remain in place, but every 2pm Sunday kick-off will be televised.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Leeds have lofty ambitions – now their transfer strategy must make it a reality
Leeds United set a high bar with their recruitment ahead of the club's previous return to the Premier League in the summer of 2020. Can any other promoted team boast of signing a future Ballon d'Or contender having just climbed out of the Championship? It was not only Raphinha, bought for £17 million from Rennes, who enhanced his value at Elland Road following a move that window. Robin Koch was playing in the latter stages of the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt last season, while Diego Llorente finished sixth in La Liga with Real Betis. Marcelo Bielsa was in charge at the time, Victor Orta did the deals and much of what they touched turned to gold. Crysencio Summerville was an under-23 signing from Feyenoord who turned into a £25 million player for West Ham United. Loans for Helder Costa and Illan Meslier were made permanent and Jack Harrison was re-signed to provide continuity to the team that won the Championship during Covid. Leeds start their season under the lights against Everton on Aug 18, giving the club the best part of two months to add to Daniel Farke's squad and give them a shot at breaking the cycle of promoted teams struggling in the top flight. At their Thorp Arch base, there is a very different feel to that in 2020 – and indeed more recent seasons. The club's rise back to the Premier League five years ago was under the stewardship of chief executive Angus Kinnear, a respected official who got deals done efficiently. Orta was the firebrand director of football whose passion could spill over while watching games. With Kinnear now at Everton, intermediaries have been speaking to Adam Underwood, who has worked his way up from the Leeds academy to be appointed sporting director. Assisted by Alex Davies, working as a head of recruitment, there has been a change of pace to the days when Orta would get back to agents with immediate answers. So far, Leeds have agreed a two-year deal for Germany forward Lukas Nmecha, 26, which begins when his contract with Wolfsburg ends at the end of the month. Nmecha started in Manchester City's academy and went on loan to Preston North End and Middlesbrough before heading to the Bundesliga. Farke has also added centre-back Jaka Bijol to his squad after a deal was struck with Udinese for the Slovenian who played regularly over the past three seasons in Serie A. 'The club and myself are ready for the Premier League,' he said when sealing a deal worth around £15 million. Leeds have been looking at goalkeepers, with Meslier dropped for the final seven games of the season. Many believe that a goalkeeper arrival would be in the event of Meslier leaving, but there have been no official bids for the 25-year-old in this window. It is a buyers' market for keepers in the Premier League. England international Sam Johnstone has lost his place at Wolves, while clubs are expected to look at Manchester City's Stefan Ortega and whether he can be tempted by a No 1 slot. It is understood there is genuine interest in Sweden left-back Gabriel Gudmundsson, who has played for Lille over the past four seasons. That could signal the sale of Junior Firpo, one of the players from the club's last spell in the Premier League. They have also looked at Strasbourg midfielder Habib Diarra – who is now set to join Sunderland – and Noah Sadiki at Union Saint-Gilloise. It will be down to Underwood to complete the deals. Intermediaries dealt with experienced executive Nick Hammond in recent windows until the changes behind the scenes. Farke's future is assured, with chairman Paraag Marathe giving the German his full backing. Farke got Norwich City promoted twice but has relegation on his CV and perhaps a point to prove in the top flight. 'I have ended the speculation. He is my man,' Marathe said on BBC Radio Leeds. 'I'm under no illusions that it is going to be easy. The past two seasons, the three promoted teams came straight back down but we have something they don't have. We have Daniel Farke, first of all.' Other issues that need resolving include Harrison, who is back at the club after a spell at Everton. Does he go on loan again? Redevelopment work on Elland Road should start this season. The project, subject to full planning approval, involves adding about 20,000 seats and increasing the capacity beyond 50,000 to serve the long waiting list for season-tickets. Plans were submitted based on Leeds being in the Premier League, which Farke delivered by smashing the 100-point barrier. Now the work is being done to keep them there.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Ranked: The 30 greatest fast bowlers in Test history
My editors tasked me, having seen more than 500 Test matches, with whittling down the finest 30 fast bowlers who ever drew breath. It is an almost impossible task, but I gave myself a helping hand with the chief criterion that the bowlers in this list must have bowled at more than 80mph. Therefore there is no place for greats such as Alec Bedser, Maurice Tate, Syd Barnes or George Lohmann of yore, and towards the end of his career Kapil Dev was in the medium-pace category. Here goes... 30. Jack Gregory 24 Tests, 85 wickets at an average of 31, and a strike rate of 65 balls per wicket 'Never before have English batsmen been so demoralised by great pace,' Wisden stated about the Australian fast bowler Jack Gregory in 1921. This sounds as if it is where bowling above 80mph begins. In his authoritative new book on the history of the game, my Telegraph Sport colleague Tim Wigmore cites the evidence that Gregory hit England batsmen 20 times above the waist in his 21 Ashes Tests, which is a rare strike-rate. He scored the fastest Test century and kept playing as an all-rounder even when his knees let him down so his overall bowling record does not look great. 29. Mike Procter 7 Tests, 41 wickets at 15 each, and 37 balls per wicket Before South Africa were banned, Proctor's statistics, as far as they went, were better than anyone's. He hurtled to the crease and whirled his right arm, a bit like Jasprit Bumrah, giving the false impression that he bowled off the wrong foot. His inswinger was so vicious that against right-handed batsmen he averaged 11. 28. Wes Hall 48 Tests, 192 wickets at 26, and 54 balls per wicket Similar in height, method and leap at the crease to Jack Gregory, he was the first fast bowler to reign in Asia: in the West Indies' 1958-59 series in India he took 30 wickets at 17 each, and 16 at 17 each in Pakistan, figures that have yet to be surpassed by any fast bowler touring Asia. His name was then writ large in the imagination of Australia, where he bowled the final over of the tied Test, and in England in 1963, where he bowled a spell of three-and-a-half hours in the Lord's Test. 27. Joel Garner 58 Tests, 259 wickets at 20, and 51 balls per wicket Using his experiences of one-day competitions at Somerset, Garner became the foremost bowler in limited-overs cricket – as when winning the 1979 World Cup for West Indies – and revived the yorker's popularity, the delivery having fallen out of fashion (it is so-called because Yorkshire bowlers of the 19th century used it). In one-day internationals he conceded only 3.09 runs per over. In Tests too he was always economical, with old ball and new. Whatever he bowled, the threat was accentuated by his 6ft 8in height – and when Garner kicked up his knees, the batsman realised he was facing an unprecedented form of danger. 26. Mitchell Starc 97 Tests, 387 wickets at 27, and 48 balls per wicket While Trent Boult took 600 wickets in all formats for New Zealand, Starc went one better. When pitching the new ball on a full length he has been driven for runs but has also swung it to devastating effect (as Rory Burns's leg stump can vouch). Only Wasim Akram, of left-arm pace bowlers, has taken more Test wickets with 414, and Starc could overtake him during the next Ashes. The variety he offers has been a key component in Australia winning medals in all formats over the past decade. 25. Courtney Walsh 132 Tests, 519 wickets at 24, and 58 balls per wicket Never mind the best Test match figures of any bowler when captain – 13 wickets for 55 against New Zealand – his immense stamina enabled him to bowl more than 30,000 balls in Tests alone, and eventually to reach the top of the pile with 519 wickets. Having bowled heaps for Gloucestershire too, he could vary his length more than his contemporary Curtly Ambrose. Spare a thought too for Walsh and the late David Lawrence being perhaps the quickest pair of opening bowlers that county cricket has seen, alongside Sussex's Garth Le Roux and Imran Khan when in the mood. 24. Andy Roberts 47 Tests, 202 wickets at 26, and 55 balls per wicket He was probably as fast as anyone there has ever been in his first couple of years of Test and county cricket (when he hit Colin Cowdrey on the head while taking 111 wickets at 13 each for Hampshire in 1974). And he took 32 wickets at 18 each in the West Indies series in India that winter. Then he evolved into a wise technician who schooled the great West Indian cohort of fast bowlers, teaching them how to build stamina without any academies by running on the beach, use cross-seam to bowl bouncers and – the hardest of all bowling tricks – to flick the shiny side over in the delivery stride to deceive the batsman. 23. Fred Trueman 67 Tests, 307 wickets at 22, and 49 balls per wicket He has to be given a bonus point for the most handsome bowling action of anyone in this list: it was a perfect marriage of power, speed and aesthetic grace in his delivery stride (bowlers do not bowl side-on any more to reduce injury). He set a world record by reaching 307 Test wickets but how many more would he have taken had he had been selected for more than four tours? He was often deemed unselectable for non-cricket reasons, but that did help feed into his personality as 'Fiery Fred'. From a tearaway he evolved into a fast-medium outswing bowler who could bowl cutters. 22. Sir James Anderson 188 Tests, 704 wickets at 26, and 57 balls per wicket He does not rate highly for strike rate (almost nine-and-a-half overs to take a wicket) but he comes top for longevity – more than 40,000 balls spanning a Test career of 21 years – and arguably for craftsmanship too: he could do everything with the seam of a cricket ball, and accurately too. Always effective in England with a Dukes ball, he also found a way for England to win their series of 2010-11 in Australia and 2012-13 in India. 21. Kagiso Rabada 71 Tests, 336 wickets at 22, and 39 balls per wicket The South African has the best strike rate of any pace bowler who has taken more than 100 wickets in Tests, largely by pitching the new ball up on the line of the stumps. Anyone can start an outswinger on or outside off stump, precious few on leg and middle. Mean bouncer too. Bowling outside England with a Kookaburra ball makes it an even finer record, although it is probably an advantage to play only two-Test series. 20. John Snow 49 Tests, 202 wickets at 27, and 60 balls per wicket Fast bowlers traditionally bowled full and straight with the odd bouncer thrown in, aside from the Bodyline series. Snow evolved the process by innovating the back-of-a-length ball that kicked into a batsman's ribs. He therefore had the fine haul of 32 wickets at 22 in the 1970-71 Ashes series. He analysed his craft like nobody in England before him. Might have performed even better if paid slightly more than a pittance. 19. Frank Tyson 17 Tests, 76 wickets at 19, and 45 balls per wicket If one man commands a place in this list on the basis of one series then it is Frank Tyson, almost unknown when he went to Australia in 1954-55 under Len Hutton. He blew the Australians away with his full length and almost certainly the fastest bowling seen till then, verging on 90 miles an hour if not exceeding. When he returned four years later, there was nothing left in the tank, only the massive shoulders which had powered him. 18. Michael Holding 60 Tests, 249 wickets at 24, and 51 balls per wicket The most graceful run-up of anyone in this list, which is not surprising given that he came from Jamaica, a land of great runners. His finest feat was his demolition of England at the Oval in 1976: 14 wickets for 149 runs on a featherbed. Arguably it was the final fanfare of traditional fast bowling, before helmets appeared, in that he aimed full and straight. He bowled the very high proportion of one-third of his victims, which suggests how far from the ball some of them were at the time. 17. Harold Larwood 21 Tests, 78 wickets at 28, and 64 balls per wicket The first fast bowler of whom there is good film footage, and we can see from it that in the Bodyline series of 1932-3 he was essentially half a century ahead of his time. The keeper is starting to take the ball with his fingers pointing skywards as batsmen hop and hope. He took 33 wickets at 19 in that Bodyline series. It was the only answer to Don Bradman and the blandest pitches there have been in England and Australia around 1930. 16. Richard Hadlee 86 Tests, 431 wickets at 22, and 51 balls per wicket Arguably the most efficient of all fast-medium bowlers on a pitch which offered something. The New Zealander married an accountant's mind, inherited from his father Walter, to all his physical attributes, and maximised his assets. Not having a partner of anything like equal calibre was a hindrance and an advantage in that the biggest slice of pie was always going to be his. Took the world record for Test wickets at one stage, before being knighted. 15. Ray Lindwall 61 Tests, 228 wickets at 23, and 60 balls per wicket One of the most graceful actions, and one of the most graceful, gentle personalities in cricket, he nonetheless had a bouncer that could take unhelmeted heads off and gave Len Hutton nightmares. Only one person has taken more Test wickets hit-wicket than Lindwall's three, which suggests there was not much wriggle room. His stock delivery was the quick outswinger. 14. Alan Davidson 44 Tests, 186 wickets at 21, and 62 balls per wicket Not an outright scary left-arm pace bowler, he was nevertheless more versatile than any apart from Sir Garfield Sobers because he could also bowl spin in Asia. His main suit, though, was fast-medium new-ball swing into the right-handed batsman. He played in the slow-scoring era of the late 1950s but it was still some feat to concede fewer than two runs per over. 13. Dennis Lillee 70 Tests, 355 wickets at 24, and 52 balls per wicket Choreography does play a role in a fast bowler's impact, though Chris Woakes has said otherwise, and nobody can have played the role of alpha-male fast bowler more dauntingly than Lillee. He bowled fast outswing, precision bouncers, and could muster a leg-cutter though never an off-cutter. Without reverse swing in his armoury, he took only six wickets in his four Tests in Asia. 12. Allan Donald 72 Tests, 330 wickets at 22, and 47 balls per wicket Primed by Warwickshire, Allan Donald led South Africa's charge on their return to international cricket after isolation. And charge he did, and leapt, like a lion going for a gazelle's throat. Strangely, many have swung the ball more before pitching but perhaps nobody has swung the ball more after pitching, in bizarre parabolas, than 'AD' at Edgbaston. The heart of a lion too. 11. Pat Cummins 68 Tests, 301 wickets at 22, and 46 balls per wicket A perfect exponent of the new school of wobble seam, he runs in and delivers with unerring accuracy. In his early years, thanks to the speed of his rotation, he was as quick as anybody but once he had finally recovered from all his back injuries he settled down into the late 80s miles per hour. Remarkably, he is almost as effective when he has to captain. 10. Waqar Younis 87 Tests, 373 wickets at 24, and 44 balls per wicket For a couple of years, until his back played up in 1991-92, he merited a couple of superlatives: the longest run-up and the fastest reverse-swinging yorker, having learnt it from his captain Imran Khan. More than half of his Test wickets, 212, were either bowled or leg-before: the only possible response was to bat left-handed. In 1991 he took 113 wickets at 14 for Surrey: he would not be allowed to do that now – which might have extended his peak. 9. Dale Steyn 93 Tests, 439 wickets at 23, and 42 balls per wicket Nobody has looked so menacing on a cricket field as Steyn after taking a wicket, as he simulated thrusting a bayonet or spear into a fallen victim, eyes bulging. His two weapons were the fast outswinger, which had 109 batsmen caught-behind by the keeper, and the bouncer. Not much in between but then there was seldom a need for anything else. His strike rate is almost the same as Bumrah's. 8. Shaun Pollock 108 Tests, 421 wickets at 23, and 58 balls per wicket He had it all in his time. At the outset he was long-limbed gangly-fast and as threatening as Allan Donald at the other end, and struck helmets for a pastime (too soon for concussion subs). He slowed down, but not by much, into another Curtly Ambrose, never giving the batsman anything except a bouncer for old times' sake. And the best batsman out of everyone in this list bar Mike Procter and Imran Khan. 7. Mitchell Johnson 73 Tests, 313 wickets at 28, and 51 balls per wicket Sometimes too short and inaccurate, Johnson at his peak in 2013-14 was surely the most lethal fast bowler that has ever been. A left-armer, he could explode from little short of a length into a batsman's ribs or face. England held the Ashes and some top batsmen including Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen but they were blown away 5-0, and South Africa followed: in those eight Tests Johnson took 59 wickets at only 15 each. 6. Wasim Akram 104 Tests, 414 wickets at 23, and 54 runs per wicket Tutored by Imran Khan, he had the same range of skills with new ball and old but was left-handed. He could therefore run through a side by going round the wicket and reversing the ball into the batsman's toes which made for a unique angle, like being thrown out from extra cover. In placing him above Johnson, we should factor in that he played his home Tests on pitches devoid of seam movement. 5. Glenn McGrath 104 Tests, 414 wickets at 23, and 54 runs per wicket Unlike Curtly Ambrose he could very occasionally be rattled and hit off his length, but otherwise he did what he did immaculately, by bowling on or just outside off stump and usually with some steepling bounce. He made Shane Warne's life a lot simpler by knocking over top orders. Throw in ODIs and he took almost a thousand international wickets… but what if an opening batsman had gone after him a la Ben Duckett? 4. Imran Khan 88 Tests, 362 wickets at 23, and 54 balls per wicket Not being content with mere inswing at Oxford, he acquired the conventional skills in county cricket then added reverse-swing as taught by Sarfraz Nawaz, so that he conquered inside and outside Asia. He was the first great bowler to bowl reverse swing not by soaking one side of the ball with sweat but by roughing up the leather on one side to make it lighter – before umpires began to inspect. In Pakistan he took 163 wickets at 19. Has anyone moved the ball more in the air than Imran's boomerangs in the early 1980s before his back injury? 3. Curtly Ambrose 98 Tests, 405 wickets at 21, and a wicket every 54 balls The only modern bowler who was never taken apart, not least because he might slip in a beamer if he was hit (before high full tosses were called no-balls). Nobody has maintained such an unwavering back of a length, so his economy rate was outstanding although he might have taken more wickets if he had pitched fuller. He conceded 2.3 per over when limited-overs hitting was kicking into Tests. His spell of seven wickets for one run against Australia in Perth can hardly be surpassed. 2. Malcolm Marshall 81 Tests, 376 wickets at 21, and a wicket every 47 balls He just missed out on the two World Cup victories by West Indies in 1975 and 1979 but he had the skills to succeed in every format. He could not only swing the ball both ways but cut it both ways and bowl the meanest bouncer because he was not too tall. He almost sprinted on tip-toe to the crease: as Mike Selvey wrote, like a sidewinder on the attack. 1. Jasprit Bumrah 46 Tests, 210 wickets at 20, and a wicket every 42 balls Deserves to be recognised as the finest Test fast bowler, and the finest white-ball fast bowler, there has been. Nobody has delivered the ball closer to the batsman since the front-foot no-ball was introduced, thanks to his extended right elbow. By anecdotal evidence, no pace bowler has ever been so difficult to read as he flicks his fingers in addition to the snap of his wrist; and by statistical evidence he is unsurpassed too, as the only Test bowler of any kind to have taken more than 200 wickets at an average below 20 (19.60). And one more stat: he averages 17 in Australia and India. Bumrah has raised the bar as the all-format fast bowler.
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
Scotland ace reveals why 'raw' Euros exit must act as watershed moment under 'hungry ' new boss
Scotland's Jenna Clark believes the appointment of Melissa Andreatta can provide a springboard to finally return to a major tournament. Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland defender Jenna Clark admits the 'raw' pain of missing out on the Women's European Championship this summer leaves her in two minds about whether she will be able to even watch the tournament this summer. The third successive tournament that Scotland have been forced to watch from home, their 2-0 defeat to Finland in the Euro 2025 playoffs saw Pedro Martinez Losa's reign as the national team boss come to a crashing end. The Spanish head coach dismissed less than a week after the painful defeat in Helsinki, his replacement Melissa Andreatta arrived in late April. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While Martinez Losa will have other things on his mind this summer as he begins his stint in charge at the Liga MX Femenil side Tigres, for Liverpool centre-back Clark, the pain of missing out on this summer's tournament in Switzerland still rankles. 'As much as I was in and around the squad during the World Cup disappointment, I felt a lot more hurt by the Euros campaign,' Clark exclusively told The Scotsman. 'I'm don't know how I'm going to feel when it's on [Euro 2025]. We've [Liverpool] got a couple of players in the team who are going, and you're buzzing for them, but there's a part of me that's going 'it could have been us'. We've got good players, we are more than capable of qualifying for a major tournament. Liverpool and Scotland defender Jenna Clark is desperate to make a major tournament with the national team. | SNS Group 'Is it overdue? Or is it underperformance, or not the right balance - I'm not too sure. The Euros being on this summer makes it raw. I'd experienced the full campaign and everything that went into it. I was just really hurt after the game - it was a really emotional time. I never want to feel like that again. The next tournament is two years away, but the determination to get there is sitting in place already. That disappointment will be a massive motivation for the next campaign.' After an apathetic three-year stint under Martinez Losa, head coach Andreatta has been able to inject an early dose of positivity with a battling 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in the Nations League earlier this month. Arguably the better side in Tilburg, supporters were encouraged by what they witnessed from their side, with the 46-year-old making a strong first impression in her debut camp as the new Scotland head coach. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad New Scotland head coach Melissa Andreatta has been a 'positive' influence on the players in her first camp, says Clark. | SNS Group 'The last performance gives us confidence,' beams Clark. 'Mel has talked about really bringing back that 'Scottishness' to our game, and showing our identity. For us our biggest focus needs to be competing against nations we are 'on par' with. Can we go and dominate those games? I want to experience the highs that I have had at club level with this [Scotland] squad, the staff, the players. Everything. I want that. I want it soon. That's the goal. I want to qualify for as many major tournaments as possible.
