Sky Sports pundit abruptly leaves World Darts Championship as announcement made | Other | Sport
Sky Sports pundit Glen Durrant has announced that he is leaving the broadcaster’s coverage of the World Darts Championship after the quarter-finals. The three-time BDO champion is a popular figure with viewers and has been calling the action at Alexandra Palace over the last few weeks. He has been a pundit for around three years, having ventured into TV work after hanging up his darts in 2022.
Durrant has reprised his role for this year’s World Darts Championship, having regularly appeared as a pundit in the Sky Sports studio and lending a hand in the commentary booth. However, his time on the channel will come to an early end following the quarter-finals on Thursday. Taking to social media, the 55-year-old revealed that he would be stepping back and watching the rest of the tournament as a fan.
On X (formerly Twitter), he said: “One more match to commentate tomorrow and then like you watching from home (pub on Saturday) as a fan. It’s brilliant to still be involved in darts and I love my job. Happy New Year everyone.”
Durrant’s announcement left many fans stunned, with @ashleywalshaw writing: “Shocker, you and [Wayne] Mardle best on comms Glen. Poor decision from Sky, hope you go on ITV.”
“You should be doing the final,” added @sledge1313, while @andyharan9 said: “Should definitely been involved in the coverage for the final (if you wanted). You, Mardle, [Dan] Dawson and [John] Part the best of the bunch by far.”
Others lauded Durrant’s coverage of the tournament so far, with @PaulCarrig posting: “Those watching Modus throughout the year know how good you are on commentary, but I think this worlds has been a breakout for Duzza on the PDC comms.”
@Joe_C92 said: “You’ve been a brilliant addition to multiple commentary teams Glen, glad you took it up after stopping your playing career,” while @cnf1971 added: “Comfortably our favourite on comms. Winner, winner, chicken balls dinner.”
Durrant is a three-time BDO world champion, having claimed the honours in successive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He later joined the PDC and won the Premier League in 2020, his only major title on the tour.
Before the start of the World Darts Championship, he predicted that Luke Littler would retain his title and become the first back-to-back champion since Gary Anderson achieved the feat in 2015 and 2016.
“If Luke Littler can’t motivate himself to be a two-time, three-time, four-time, that’s the biggest thing for me,” said Durrant.
“He’s already a very rich young man and, you know, what’s the motivation for him to sort of get on the practice board? But I’ve got him to win it again. I like his draw and I like him.
“I’ve recently just spent some time in Finland with him right now and, do you know, he’s unique, he’s classy, he’s maturing very, very nicely and he’s an excellent world champion right now.
“And I think he goes into it… Don’t forget, he doesn’t think like me and you. When you’re an elite sportsman, like a Ronnie O’Sullivan, a Tiger Woods, and I put, you know, Michael van Gerwen at 17.
“You know, I put Littler in that. They think differently to us and he just has to be careful. That 128 players means that’s a lot of games to win.”
