BBC Sport presenters Manish Bhasin and Rishi Persad were announced this week as the new faces of the BBC’s cricket coverage.

The two lifelong cricket fans will host the corporation's studio analysis and discussion sessions, joined by cricketer and broadcaster Richie Benaud, former England captain Tony Greig, ex-England batsman Geoffrey Boycott and Jonathan Agnew.

Manish, the face of BBC's Football Focus, will present coverage of the Ashes and Cricket World Cup highlights. Rishi, a presenter and reporter for BBC’s horse racing coverage, will present highlights of the one-day international series and provide reports for the Cricket World Cup programmes.

BBC Director of Sport, Roger Mosey, said: "Manish and Rishi are both passionate cricket fans. They are also up-and-coming stars of BBC Sport, and they'll bring an exciting fresh approach to the return of cricket to BBC Television."

Manish joined Central News East in 2001 where he presented in-depth coverage of the regions essential sport highlights, later being nominated for Regional Sports Presenter or Commentator of the Year at the RTS Sport Awards. He also spent five years at BBC Radio Leicester working as Sports presenter/commentator before moving on to Five Live.

When Pakistan refused to take the field on the 4th day of the 4th Test at the Oval a few months ago, he hosted a special cricket and football edition of 606 on Five Live, taking calls from Oval spectators and interviewed Mike Gatting and Pat Murphy live from the ground. He still plays cricket regularly.

Rishi grew up in Trinidad and played a lot of cricket at school, both in Trinidad and the UK, where he came to live aged 12. After university he spent seven years playing for Old Finchleians in the Hertfordshire Cricket League until he started in television as a horse racing presenter.

Prior to joining the BBC he worked at Channel Four as part of their RTS award winning team at the Cheltenham Festival. He joined the BBC in April 2003, and has worked on the London Marathon, Wimbledon, The Open Golf Championship and the Athens Olympics.

As well as TV highlights of the Ashes and one-day internationals, the BBC has acquired rights for interactive highlights. There will also be live radio coverage of the Tests with TMS on BBC Radio 4 and Five Live Sports Xtra, in addition to ball-by-ball text coverage online.

The Ashes will start in Australia in late November and finish in the first week of January.

The one-day international series will run from 12 January to 13 February 2007. The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup runs from 13 March to 28 April.