Sue Barker says BBC A Question of Sport departure left her 'slightly damaged'

The presenter, 66, left the programme in 2021 after 24 years of hosting it and said she was "gobsmacked" by how her exit went.

Barker wrote about her experiences in The Daily Mail and described how the BBC tried to move her on from the programme at first in 2016.

The programme had been "put out to tender" by the BBC to several independent production companies without Barker's name attached, which she "couldn't believe".

Writing in The Daily Mail she said: "Apparently the BBC wanted to refresh the show — with more diversity and more appeal to a younger audience.

Sue Barker with A Question of Sport captains Matt Dawson (left) and Phil Tuffnell (Vishal Sharma/BBC/PA)

"I was gobsmacked. How did they think I wasn't going to hear about this?

"Thankfully, many of the companies that bid for the show did want me to stay on. At which point the BBC reversed gear and said they didn't want to change the line-up."

An extension for Barker and the two team captains on A Question of Sport, Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson, followed, but by 2020 there were rumours of another attempt at a change in line-up, as the BBC had tried to change Tufnell and Dawson two years prior to that.

The inevitable then happened as all three were called into separate meetings during their penultimate block of recording sessions.

Barker said: "We were being sacked. I accepted their decision, though I couldn't help feeling wretchedly sad. The boys were devastated, too.

"The show had played an anchoring role in all our lives; it was part of our identity — it's the first thing any member of the public who stops me for a chat wants to know about.

"The only thing we asked the BBC was to get statements from us all for when the news broke. But we heard nothing. No email, no letter, no phone call. Silence.

Sue Barker presenting at Wimbledon in 2022 (PA)

"Then two weeks before we filmed the final show, BBC management emailed just to say they were sorry not to have been in touch. That's when anger set in. Not just for how I was being treated but on behalf of the boys."

Barker offered job back on A Question of Sport

After that the BBC sent over a statement for Barker to approve about how the three of them had decided to step away from the show.

They all refused to sign, and Barker wanted the BBC to own up to their actual decision.

She wrote: "I wasn't going to lie to make it easier for them.

"Unbelievably, they then offered me my job back, but as I couldn't help but feel they didn't want me anymore, I declined."

The presenter said she would have been happier to move on if it had been planned ahead and there could have been a "good-humoured evolution" to the programme.

She added: "There seemed little understanding of our chemistry and the way we worked together, and little appreciation of all the years we'd put in to make sure each show was as good, if not better, than the last. The whole scenario was confusing and distressing.

"The overwhelming feeling I was left with was a determination that this sort of treatment, this lack of care and consideration, was never, ever going to happen to me again."