Ganguly, Ponting to commentate at Champions Trophy

Acclaimed international captains including India’s Sourav Ganguly and Australia’s Ricky Ponting are a part of a stellar line-up of commentators named by the ICC for the upcoming Champions Trophy scheduled between June 1 and 18.

Some of the other former captains in the line-up include Brendon McCullum of New Zealand, Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and Graeme Smith of South Africa.

The upcoming Champions Trophy will have a star-studded lineup of former captains donning the microphone as Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting headline the list of commentators for the June 1-18 tournament.

Other former skippers include Brendon McCullum, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith — all of whom will be making their ICC TV debut.

Shane Warne, Michael Slater, Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, Shaun Pollock, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ian Bishop, Ramiz Raja, Simon Doull and Athar Ali Khan complete the list.

Sportstar, in a report last month , was first to write about Ganguly's possible return to the commentator's box. 

Ganguly likely to return to the broadcasting box

On his association, Ponting said: “As a player, I always looked forward to the Champions Trophy. Winning it on two occasions was a big thrill. This year, I am really looking forward to it being staged in England and being a part of the commentary team.”

“I am expecting Australia and England to make the final with Pat Cummins and Jason Roy, two guys to stand out across the two weeks. I can’t wait!”

McCullum on his part stated: “Working with names like Ponting, Ganguly and Smith is going to be great fun and hopefully we can give the viewers a unique insight on the action unfolding out in the middle.”

“The Champions Trophy is a special tournament which I loved playing in and I am honoured to have enjoyed success in. Now, as a commentator, I am very much looking forward to being part of the tournament and watching the best players in the world go head to head,” Sangakkara said

“Most of the teams have a chance of lifting the trophy so it promises to be a fascinating three weeks of action,” he said.

The eight-team tournament, which kicks off with host England playing Bangladesh at The Oval on June 1, will see state-of-the-art coverage, which will include 34 cameras at every game, including eight ultra-motion Hawk-Eye cameras, front and reverse view stump cameras and a Spidercam.

In what is a first for cricket coverage, six Player Tracking cameras will be used in each match while the final at The Oval on June 18 will have additional pictures provided by a drone camera to supplement the broadcast coverage.