Yorkshire's John Helm on what it's like commentating to 86m people - on the Indian Super League

Rather than prosaic visits to Huddersfield Town or Doncaster Rovers, the elder statesman of football commentary is reporting on matches in the sultry heat of Goa or the humid climes of Mumbai.

He’s been a regular on top flight soccer television in India for 15 years and despite recently clocking up 60 years in journalism, he has no plans to retire just yet.

It’s a far cry from his first job on the now-defunct Shipley Times in the late 1950s, just down the road from the village of Baildon where he grew up.

Speaking from his hotel in India, he said: “I want to continue commentating for as long as possible. I love the job and age doesn’t come into it. I couldn’t possibly have dreamt of coming to India when I was a boy although I think I did always have a fascination for it.

“I saw the Indian cricket team play Yorkshire at Park Avenue (in Bradford) back in the 50s and was intrigued by names like Pankaj Roy, AG Kripal Singh and Vinoo Mankad, who I met when he played in a charity game at Baildon.

“In later years I got to know Farokh Engineer (a star cricketer of the 1960s and 1970s) very well through golf days organised by Fred Trueman and I met Farokh in Mumbai this year.” John, who later worked for The Yorkshire Post and covered sport for BBC and ITV, said he feels privileged.

He said: “As I gaze out from my hotel balcony across the Arabian Sea and marvel at the beauty of Goa, the horrors of 2020 seem a million miles away. Yet paradise really is lost amid the pleasure of covering a tournament that is growing in popularity and prestige with every season.

“Just getting here was a nightmare for a technological nerd charged with the responsibility of sorting out visa forms and Covid tests.

“Then there was the 14-day quarantine on arrival, thankfully in a spacious room with a gorgeous view, to compensate in part for meals deposited outside the door with wooden cutlery, and Covid tests every three days.”

He added: “Now for the plus points. Camaraderie is probably enhanced by being locked in with people you simply have to get on with. The TV coverage is of very high standard. When I’m back in England folk ask me if many people watch football in India. They have this misconception that folk are only interested in cricket here.

“There is one match every day in the Hero Indian Super League and over the first week of the new season 86m tuned in.”

One of his TV colleagues is ex-Hull City manager Phil Brown, in a different bubble at another hotel, but ever ready to swap yarns on Zoom chats. John celebrated his silver wedding with wife Hildred in India in 1993 but she would not have been allowed into his TV bubble.