James Brayshaw

James Brayshaw

Personal information
Full name	James Antony Brayshaw
Born	(1967-05-11) 11 May 1967 (age 54) Subiaco, Western Australia
Nickname	JB, Jim, Bray
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1987/88–1990/91	Western Australia
1991/92–1996/97	South Australia
Career statistics
Competition First-class List A Matches 75 35 Runs scored 4,934 589 Batting average 42.53 25.60 100s/50s 10/29 1/1 Top score 146 101* Balls bowled 1,169 409 Wickets 10 8 Bowling average 57.20 40.00 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 Best bowling 2/15 2/20 Catches/stumpings 43/– 12/–
Source: CricInfo, 31 March 2008

James Antony Brayshaw (born 11 May 1967) is an Australian media personality working in television for the Seven Network and radio for Triple M and a retired cricketer. For Seven Sport he hosts and calls Test cricket during summer and Australian Football League on Friday nights during winter.

Brayshaw worked for the Nine Network for 15 years, calling AFL, cricket and co-hosting The Footy Show.

As a cricketer he was known as Jamie Brayshaw. He is a former chairman of the North Melbourne Football Club. From 2011 to 2015 he was chairman of the Melbourne Renegades cricket team.

Cricket career[]

Like his father Ian Brayshaw, James Brayshaw played domestic cricket for Western Australia then South Australia, Brayshaw had a career spanning almost a decade.^[1] In that time he was a consistent fielder, with 43 catches. Brayshaw is a two-time Sheffield Shield winner, this achievement was completed with two states and occurred on the teams' respective home grounds. In the 1987/1988 final, Brayshaw won with Western Australia who defeated Queensland by 5 wickets. Brayshaw scoring 24 off 104 balls and 4 off 8 balls and having the rare achievement of being caught by two international test captains, with Allan Border in the first innings and Ian Botham in the second innings.^[2] The other Shield was in 1995/1996 final he won with South Australia in a draw against his former state but by being the home team winning the competition. Brayshaw performed solidly with the bat for the Redbacks, scoring 87 in the first innings and 66 in the second innings.

He would continue to play domestic cricket for one more season, before retiring at 30 years of age to focus on his media career. He also played at First Class level for Australia A but due to Australian Cricket enjoying a successful era and many batsmen considered to be ahead of him, Brayshaw wasn’t really in contention for a baggy green cap.

Media career[]

Early career at Seven Network[]

Following his retirement from cricket in 1996, Brayshaw worked for the Seven Network in Adelaide. This included being a sports reporter for Seven Nightly News and working on local football discussion programs, including Footy Plus. In early 1998 he was teamed up with Amanda Blair and Paul Gale on Adelaide's SAFM, which eventually became the city's number one rating breakfast show. One on-air incident at SAFM saw him covered in Adelaide Football Club bodypaint after the club he supports, North Melbourne, lost the 1998 AFL Grand Final to them.^[3]

Arrival at Nine Network and Triple M[]

In 2001 his big break came as the host of the Seven's coverage of 2001 Ashes with Jeff Thomson, but later moved to the Nine Network when the Australian Football League was transferred from Seven becoming a commentator on Sunday mainly with Brian Taylor, Garry Lyon and Dennis Cometti, he eventually involved behind the microphone in Nine’s cricket coverage. In 2005, Brayshaw co-hosted Any Given Sunday with Garry Lyon and Sam Newman. Brayshaw joined radio station Triple M in 2002 as a commentator in it’s AFL coverage. He also worked as a full-time co-host on breakfast program The Cage before it was axed in 2007 due to high costs and poor ratings. Previously he has been part of the Melbourne-based show via his home studio in the Adelaide Hills.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Brayshaw (along with Garry Lyon) replaced Eddie McGuire as host of The AFL Footy Show, a position he held until the end of 2016. Additionally, with Lyon he co-hosted the morning sessions of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Brayshaw was installed as chairman of the North Melbourne Football Club on 6 December 2007 after the club rejected the AFL's deal to permanently relocate to the Gold Coast.^{[citation needed]} He was in the role until the end of 2016 and was replaced by Ben Buckley.

Brayshaw also hosted The Sunday Footy Show from 2009-2011 and hosted the Australian version of Wipeout with Josh Lawson.

Brayshaw called the skiing snowboard events during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 Summer Olympics in London, calling rowing both for Nine and Foxtel.^[4] He also been involved in golf coverage for Nine and was a main part of it’s cricket from 2011 to 2016 including calling the 2013/14 Ashes.

In December 2016, it was announced that Brayshaw had left the Nine Network after contract negotiations broke down.^[5] Brayshaw was replaced by Craig Hutchinson on the Footy Show

Return to Seven[]

In February 2018, it was announced that Brayshaw would return to the Seven Network as an AFL commentator mainly to call Saturday night matches for the network replacing Basil Zempilas in the role.^[6] In July 2018, it was announced that Brayshaw would host and commentate for Seven Sport's coverage of Test cricket and the Big Bash League. From 2021, Brayshaw joined Brian Taylor in calling Friday night matches, replacing Bruce McAvaney who stepped down from Seven's AFL commentary team.^[7]

In addition to his work with Seven, Brayshaw currently co-hosts The Rush Hour on Triple M Melbourne with Billy Brownless. The show is broadcast weekdays in the drive-time slot. He also hosts Triple M's Saturday afternoon football program The Saturday Rub and calls Saturday afternoon football for the station subject to his commitments with Channel 7. Formerly he also contributed to Triple M's coverage of test cricket.

Personal life[]

James Brayshaw is the son of Ian ‘Sticks’ Brayshaw, former First Class cricketer for Western Australia and former Claremont WAFL Premiership Player and the brother of Mark Brayshaw, a former player for North Melbourne and current CEO of the AFLCA.

In an accident on 20 September 2006, his sister Sally was killed instantly after the facade of her garage collapsed on top of her.^[8]

Brayshaw and his wife Sarah have four sons.^[9] On 23 October 2014, the couple announced their separation after 23 years of marriage.^[10] Brayshaw’s current partner is Lisa Christie.

As of December 2018, Brayshaw has three nephews on AFL Lists at three clubs; Angus Brayshaw at the Melbourne Football Club. Andrew Brayshaw at the Fremantle Football Club and Hamish Brayshaw at the West Coast Eagles^[11] with brother Mark the father of Angus, Andrew and Hamish.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Brayshaw.

• James Brayshaw photo and profile
• Cricinfo Profile – James Brayshaw
• The Age article – All-rounder in the chair