UAE: 'Girls can do anything’, female cricket presenter wants to inspire her daughter

If you are a female cricket presenter, how would you control your emotions and just focus on the job while doing an on-field interview with the man-of-the-match winner who also happens to be your husband?

Kiwi sports presenter Laura McGoldrick has been in that position ‘many times’ in her life because her husband, Martin Guptill, has an uncanny knack of conjuring match-winning performances with his swashbuckling style of batsmanship.

So how does McGoldrick, who still gets ‘terribly nervous’ when Guptill bats, throw questions at him post-match?

McGoldrick, who is here in the UAE to work for the broadcast team at the ILT20 where Guptill played for the Sharjah Warriors, opened up on how she separates her professional from personal life and what it was like going on a date with her husband in Dubai. Excerpts from an interview:

You are working in the UAE at the ILT20 and your husband also played in the tournament for the Sharjah Warriors. It’s quite a unique position that you two find yourselves in as husband and wife…

We're very lucky that we get to do it. We get that our jobs sort of coexist. So we get to inadvertently spend quite a bit of time together which is really cool. Really great when we have kids as well. I just do my job, he does his. He's very supportive of what I do. And likewise, I am with him.

You have done on-field interviews with him quite a few times when he’s the star of the match. Did it ever feel a little odd to be handling those moments as a professional?

I have interviewed Martin a lot of times. He's won a lot of man-of-the-match awards. I know that it’s my job to ask questions and his job is to answer the questions. And so we just try to do it as professionally as possible. But, you know, I think lots of people know that we're husband and wife and probably when the microphones go down, I remind him that we need to pick up some milk on the way home for the kids!

There are two other female presenters in India as well who are married to cricketers, Sanjana Ganesan and Mayanti Langer..

I've got to actually work with them. Sanjana (Jasprit Bumrah’s wife) was here in the UAE for season one of the ILT20 and we've also worked the World Cups together. Mayanti (Stuart Binny’s wife) and I worked last year at the 50-over World Cup in India. There are some fabulous women who work in cricket coverage these days.

Indeed, in the last few years, we have seen more female presenters in men’s cricket. It must be an amazing feeling for you to be part of that change…

There is certainly a change. Having a daughter it's important for me to be part of the change. I want to show her that girls can do anything. I work with some brilliant people and I work really hard and I love my job. So yeah, it's nice to be part of the change.

Would you want Martin to join you as a broadcaster after he hangs up his boots?

He's got a few ideas of what he would like to do. He's doing a little bit of coaching as well, which he's enjoying. Will I get them in the commentary box? I'm not sure I'd like to interview him post-cricket. Hopefully, he's still got a few more years playing because he still loves it.

But coaching is a very demanding job, there is so much pressure, scrutiny, criticism…

I think Martin has always been very good at handling pressure and scrutiny. He's a very calm man. He's a very considered me, and I actually think that would make a really brilliant coach. He has a lot of wisdom. He's played the game for a long time. And I think that he's got obviously a lot of experience and the game of cricket has been very good to our family, so I know he wants to give back and perhaps coaching will be the way he does it.

You have two kids. How’s Martin Guptill as a father?

He's an amazing dad. I feel very lucky to get to watch him as a dad. He is also not bad in the kitchen.

Dubai, and the UAE for that matter, is an amazing place to mix business with pleasure, isn’t it?

Yes, there are so many things to do here. We went to Atlantis we had an absolute blast. My mother was here with us helping with the children. The kids loved it. We also went to the Global Village and the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi which was such a beautiful experience. There are so many different things here and I really enjoy how there are lots of different cuisines and beautiful restaurants. We've had a couple of date nights in some fabulous restaurants and it's just a very very safe country. It's a really lovely place to bring your family.

Coming back to cricket, you spoke about being professional when you interviewed him post-match. But when he goes out to bat, do you still get nervous?

Yes terribly nervous, I've been watching him for 15 years and I still get butterflies, but I am are very, very proud of him.

It must have been a very proud moment for you when he scored that famous double hundred (237) against the West Indies in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinals.

Oh, yeah. I didn't move the whole innings. My dad, and my mom sat beside me at the stadium in Wellington. And I said to Mum, ‘You can’t go to the toilet’. It was an amazing day. I remember we were having breakfast together and he said, ‘I've never more than one 50 (half-century) on this ground’. So I said, ‘Well, it’s a good opportunity for you today’. I didn’t realise he was going to score four half-centuries (in one match).

Who are the other cricketers you admire?

I love Martin Guptill. I think he's very good! But, of course, yeah I love watching Dre Russ (Andre Russell). It's great to see other Kiwis do very well in this tournament like Colin Munro, and Trent Boult. I thought it was amazing to have Shaheen Shah Afridi here in ILT20. He is fantastic, I love watching him. I've got lots of cricketers I love, but I'd have to say Martin Guptill is my favourite.

So how do you support your husband, who also happens to be your favourite cricketer, when he goes through a lean phase?

Well, it's obviously hard you don't ever like to see your partner go through a tough time at work, but it does happen especially in a game like cricket and when you're a batter it's a harder game. So for me, it's just about keeping things normal for him. He knows how to figure it out himself. He's done this long enough now. So when he's struggling, he does the things he needs to do and my job as his wife is just to be there for whatever he needs. And I also remind him that when the kids are here, he's just dad and they don't care if he got 150 or 0. He’s still their dad, and they love him just as much.

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