Al Jazeera International announces plans for sports offering

Notes and media contacts

*Sports team on screen talent biographies

Imran Garda - Sports Reporter / Presenter (DOHA)

Imran Garda comes to Al Jazeera International from South Africa's Supersport channel, where he was a specialist cricket correspondent covering major events such as the 2003 Cricket World Cup and The Ashes. Imran's other highlights include hosting English Premiership and Spanish football, as well as The IAAF Grand Prix and Golden League. He recently covered the African Cup of Nations as an in-studio-anchor and filed and presented stories on local South African Football as a field reporter and studio anchor. He has also covered major ATP tennis events, the Commonwealth Games and F1 Powerboats.

Joanna Gasiorowska - Sports Reporter / Presenter (DOHA)

Joanna Gasiorowska joins Al Jazeera International with a range of sports reporting experience with the UK's ITN and with Sky Sports. In her most recent role with ITN, Joanna was a sports reporter on ITV's Evening News and presented daily sports news bulletins on the ITV News Channel. During this time she covered all the big stories in world sport and became a well-known face to UK television viewers. At Sky Sports Joanna covered American football, golf, Premiership football, speedway and darts. She also reported on major events such as the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Joanna is a golf and Formula One specialist, and an avid golfer - a passion which led to her playing in the 2005 BMW Open Pro-Am at Wentworth. She has also held roles in motor sport publishing.

Rahul Pathak - Sports Reporter / Presenter (DOHA)

Rahul Pathak has held roles with the UK's Five News, Meridian Broadcasting, ITN News Direct, Sunrise Radio, and with Australia's SBS TV. As a sports reporter with Five News, Rahul filed stories on major domestic and international sports events and stories. He also held roles with the network as a sports presenter, newsreader and news producer. Prior to Five News, Rahul was a sports presenter and reporter at Meridian, where he covered both regional and national sport. With SBS TV in Sydney, he worked on a range of sports and shows including the Toyota World Sports programme. With Sunrise Radio in the UK he presented news for Asian community and produced programmes including the daily current affairs show InFocus.

Andrew Richardson - Sports Reporter / Presenter (DOHA)

Andrew Richardson brings to Al Jazeera International a wide range of sports reporting experience drawn from his career with the UK's Independent Television News (ITN), Sky News, ITV and Five News. As Sports Correspondent for Five News he covered many of the major events in world sport including the 2002 Football World Cup in Japan, the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia and the 2004 European Football Championships in Portugal. He also filed reports across this period for Five News's parent company, Sky News. With ITN in London, Andrew was a sports producer and reporter for ITV News, producing stories on domestic and international sporting events. He covered both the 1999 Rugby World Cup and the 2000 European Football Championships with the network.

Brendan Connor - Sports Correspondent (WASHINGTON DC)

Brendan Connor is a veteran broadcaster with over 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including roles with Canada's CBC Television, CBC Newsworld, CBC Radio and TSN. Connor has covered a range of major sports events including: the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the 1988 Seoul Olympics. the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, the 1990 New Zealand Commonwealth Games, the Stanley Cup Finals, the World Series, the Super Bowl, various Grey Cups, the NBA Draft, the NBA All-Star game, and the NBA Finals. At CBC Newsworld he was on the anchor desk for CBC specials on the death of Ronald Reagan, the commemorations of the September 11th attacks in the US, several Canadian elections and the August 2005 crash of an Air France jet in Toronto.

Dara McIntosh - Sports Correspondent (WASHINGTON DC)

Dara McIntosh joins Al Jazeera International with a range of experience in sports journalism from roles with US broadcasters BCAT-TV, MSG, NBC, UPN, ESPN, Major League Baseball Productions and CNN. With BCAT-TV in New York Dara co-hosted the station's sports talk show broadcasting to over 3 million viewers. As the in-house correspondent for the NBA's Detroit Pistons she reported on forty one home games per season, and as a weekday reporter for KRBC sports she covered all of Dallas's sports teams and major events. With Major League Baseball Productions in New York she regularly interviewed the game's leading players and filed reports for the weekly FOX syndicated sports magazine show.

Carrie Brown - Sports Correspondent (LONDON)

Carrie Brown brings Al Jazeera a wide range of experience in news and sport from her roles with the UK's British Eurosport, ITN, ITV and Five News. As Chief Reporter at British Eurosport she anchored London's winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, live from Singapore. She also covered the 2005 World Superbike season, was a pitch-side reporter at Football's Euro2004 and a reporter for Eurosport's weekly football magazine show Top 24. She has also presented, produced and reported for British Eurosport's daily news bulletin and covered major events such as Six Nations Rugby, World Athletics Championships and both the Summer and Winter Olympics. At ITN Carrie was lead reporter for ITV's Morning News Bulletin and as a news producer filed reports for Five News. In her early career Carrie worked on the foreign desk of ITV's well-known News at Ten.

About Al Jazeera International

Al Jazeera International is the world's first English language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Broadcasting from within the Middle East, looking outwards, Al Jazeera International will report inclusively, offering all perspectives of a story, providing a fresh approach to news coverage and revolutionizing viewer choice across the globe.

Al Jazeera International is building on the ground breaking heritage of its sister Arab language channel - Al Jazeera, which was responsible for changing the face of news within the Middle East, extending that fresh perspective from regional to global. Al Jazeera International is the only international channel inside the Middle East looking out.

With broadcasting centres strategically placed across the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London, and Washington D.C., Al Jazeera International is perfectly positioned to bring the world a fresh 360 degree perspective on world news.

Al Jazeera International's reporting is accurate, impartial and objective.

Doha: Charlotte Dent or Lana Khachan: +974 489 0713/6

US: Rana Jazayerli: +1 202-372-6347

or

Katie Bergius: +1 212 486 7070

UK: Sheila Thompson or Deborah Coleman: +44 207 591 9610