Kelly Cates, the Sky Sports presenter, has revealed that she hasn’t sought advice from “adored” Gary Lineker as she prepares to join Match of the Day this season, stating: “I don’t want to be Gary”. She also pledged not to use her platform to champion political and social causes like her BBC predecessor.
The daughter of Kenny Dalglish is set for a busy season, sharing coverage of 215 live Premier League games on Sky Sports and joining the new MOTD team alongside Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan. However, Cates has not reached out to the former England striker for guidance on her new role.
Ahead of the launch of the new Sky Sports Premier League season, she said: “No he hasn’t got in touch and I haven’t got in touch with him, but not because we’re not avoiding each other. We just don’t know each other. I know Gary to say hello to.. We just don’t know each other that well. And I think Chappers was saying that Gary said: ‘Well, why would I tell three broadcasters how to do their job?’ which is very lovely of him because he was brilliant at the job and adored. And as much as he was a controversial character at times, any focus group that was researching will tell you how much he was adored in that role.
“So I think from my point of view, the reason not to do it would be, I don’t want to be Gary. I think there’s a temptation to try and be someone else, and I think that you get a job because of yourself. And if then you try to be someone else, it can all just get a bit confused. I don’t need another thing to think about. I don’t need to be sitting there thinking: ‘What would Gary do? It’s not a decision not to. It’s just we don’t have that relationship.”
Lineker, 64, bid farewell to the BBC flagship show after a 26-year stint in May following a controversial social media post shared from the Palestine Lobby group, featuring an image of a rat – a historic anti-semitic insult.
Lineker “apologised unreservedly” and was recently unveiled as the host of a new ITV game show The Box.
Cates chimed in: “I haven’t ever really used my social media for that. So it isn’t something that I’m going to have to change because it’s not ever what I’ve used it for. I think that in a lot of cases, I’m not the best placed person to talk about some of those issues. And I think there’s a tendency to believe that if somebody isn’t talking about something they don’t care about it, and I think it’s perfectly possible to care about something and keep quiet and let experts talk about it, which I think is a lot of the time better.
“I always feel like if I couldn’t cope well with being challenged heavily on it, then I shouldn’t be putting my opinion out publicly. Whereas I think there are people they don’t necessarily need to be particularly qualified in the area, but are people who are much better informed who can do that.”
She revealed the number of matches she will present this season is “a bit of a moveable feast”.
Cates, who has two teenage children, elaborated: “I can’t do both of them on same day, but I could do Match of the Day on Saturday and Sky on the Sunday. Yeah, that would work, or vice versa. These were all my questions at the beginning. But it’s not as complicated as you think. There’s a very fast train to Manchester. It should be like roughly a fairly even mix to them, I think.
“Because I’ve just got busy weekends, but I work in sports so I expect to have busy weekends. And it’s actually my midweeks are a bit clearer than they were, so it’s just changing where I work, really. It’s just changing the timetable.”
Sky Sports will unveil cutting-edge technology this season with a Supersized Super Sunday displaying up to four matches simultaneously on the Multiview programme.
More than 30 additional matches will be broadcast on Sundays from teams competing in Europe on Thursday. “Our job is still the same,” stated Cates.
“It’s just to talk to the guests and get the best out of the pundits. So in terms of what we actually do, it doesn’t really make that much difference. It’s just how it’s all treated and goes through the process afterwards, and things like how it’s all clipped up and how it’s streamed. And I sit, listen to that and go, that sounds amazing. I have no idea how to do it.
“I think that the tone generally has changed to become more conversational on air, and I think that’s probably because that’s come from digital. So I think because there was a huge increase in the amount of digital media that people were consuming, and that was a lot of that was fan lead and a lot of it was, you know, just people starting up on their own at the beginning. But I think you can have a conversational tone without having a conversation, you can still interview somebody while having a conversational tone.”
Sky Sports and NOW will broadcast over 215 Premier League matches exclusively live this season