Voting now open for SJA Sports Broadcast Awards - Sports Journalists' Association

Voting is now open for the 2010 SJA British Sports Broadcasting Awards.

Michael Atherton, the 2009 SJA British Sports Writer of the Year, has a chance of landing an extraordinary double.

The former England cricket captain and Times cricket correspondent was named by our panel of broadcasting experts among the six short-listed candidates for the 2010 Broadcaster of the Year for his work on Sky’s coverage of Test cricket.

Broadcaster of the Year is one of three broadcast categories this year, the others being for radio and television programmes. All three categories are voted on by the SJA’s members – sports writers, photographers, editors and other broadcasters.

Atherton’s rivals for Broadcaster of the Year include BBC’s Formula 1 presenter, Jake Humphrey, and Ray Stubbs, the frontman for ESPN’s football coverage. Also on the shortlist is Atherton’s former England team mate and now Sky broadcaster, Nasser Hussain.

Also selected for shortlisting are Mark Saggers , a high-profile transfer from BBC Radio to Talksport, and Jonathan Overend, most recently in action commentating on Andy Murray’s run to the Australian Open Final for the BBC.

Sky’s high definition coverage of England’s controversial summer Test series with Pakistan is among the shortlisted nominees in the television programme category, while BBC Radio 5Live’s coverage of Wimbledon and the channel’s four-day marathon Ryder Cup coverage are both nominated in their category, along with last year’s winner, Test Match Special.

Talksport is well represented in the radio shortlists, with Sports Breakfast and Matchday Live also in the running for SJA members’ votes.

Channel 4’s racing coverage includes their excellent work at the Cheltenham Festival. Sky’s HD Ryder Cup coverage takes its place alongside two very different presentations of tennis, the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon and Eurosport’s French Open coverage.

The shortlists were drawn up by a panel of senior broadcasters and journalists, including ITV’s Niall Sloane, Sunset and Vine’s Jeff Foulser, ESPN’s Ross Hair, Andrew Franklin from Channel 4, Simon Reed from Eurosport , Moz Dee from Talksport, and Martin Kelner, The Guardian columnist.

Voting this year is entirely online. Click here to go to the voting form, which takes just a minute or so to complete. Only fully paid-up SJA members are eligible to vote. Votes can only be cast for shortlisted candidates.

Voting closes at noon on Monday, February 21.

The sports broadcasting award winners will be announced alongside the sports writing and photography award winners at the SJA’s British Sports Journalism Awards dinner in London on Monday, March 7, sponsored by UK Sport.

Tickets for this prestigious event, the largest annual gathering of leading figures frosport and the media, are also now available. Make your booking by clicking here.

The full shortlists for the broadcast awards are:

Broadcaster of the Year