Donna Symmonds is a Barbadian

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

 lawyer and sports commentator

Sports commentator

In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...

. She is the best known female international cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 commentator.

The daughter of a former High Commissioner for Barbados in London, Symmonds grew up in Bridgetown

Bridgetown

The city of Bridgetown , metropolitan pop 96,578 , is the capital and largest city of the nation of Barbados. Formerly, the Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael...

 where she played cricket for her school and junior tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 for Barbados. She later attended the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

 in England where she studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

.

Her first sports commentary job came in 1985 when she was asked to cover a tennis tournament for a local sports radio station. Impressed by her work, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation

Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation

The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation is the government-owned media corporation located in Barbados.The television service broadcasts on channel 8 and is the only legally-licensed, over-the-air television channel broadcasting in the country of Barbados...

 persuaded her to try her hand at covering cricket, and in 1987 she covered her first Shell Shield match. She moved on to covering West Indies Test cricket

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

, and her first commentary was West Indies vs Pakistan at Barbados

Kensington Oval

The Kensington Oval is located to the west of the capital-city Bridgetown on the island of Barbados. "The Oval" is one of the major sporting facilities on the island and is primarily used for cricket...

 in 1988.
As the first female commentator to cover Test cricket in the West Indies, she initially brought mixed reactions from listeners, but is now accepted as an able and experienced broadcaster.

In 1998, Symmonds was invited by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 to join the Test Match Special

Test Match Special

Test Match Special is a British radio programme covering professional cricket, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 , Five Live Sports Extra and the internet to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world...

 team during the 1998 England tour of the West Indies

English cricket team in West Indies in 1997-98

The West Indian cricket team toured West Indies from 16 January to 8 April 1998 as part of the 1997-98 cricket season. The tour included six Tests and five One Day Internationals...

, making her the first female TMS commentator. She also provided commentary for the 1999 Cricket World Cup

1999 Cricket World Cup

-England:-Outside England:-Group A:-Results:-------------------------------------------------------------Group B:-Results:------------------------------------------------------------...

 and the 2000 West Indian tour of England

West Indian cricket team in England in 2000

The West Indian cricket team toured England in the 2000 cricket season. West Indies played five Tests against England, two in June and three in August, with a triangular One Day International series involving Zimbabwe in July....

as part of the TMS team. As well as her radio work, she also provides commentary for televised cricket.

Outside of cricket, Symmonds is a practising lawyer with her own firm in Bridgetown, and has also worked as a special sports envoy to the Barbados Ministry of Tourism.