Adnan Virk ( ur, ) (born July 29, 1978) is a Canadian sportscaster for MLB Network and DAZN who previously worked for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, TSN, and WWE. He also produces and hosts the weekly podcast ''Cinephile with Adnan Virk'' show covering cinema news and interviews with entertainment celebrities, as well as co-hosts the football podcast ''The GM Shuffle'' with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi.

Early life

Virk was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to Zakaria and Taherah Virk; his parents had immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. In 1984 the family relocated to Kingston, then in 1989 to Morven, a small town just outside Kingston, where his parents owned and operated a gas station and Zack's Variety store. After graduating from Ernestown Secondary School, where he played basketball and soccer, Virk studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

Career

From 2003 to 2009, Virk hosted several programs on The Score, and was an associate producer for '' Sportscentre'' at TSN. He was also the co-host of ''Omniculture'' and ''Bollywood Boulevard'' at

Omni Television Omni Television (stylized as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system and specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multicultur ...

. In 2009, he joined Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) as a host and reporter for Raptors TV, Leafs TV and Gol TV Canada.

ESPN

In April 2010, Virk joined the

family of stations in Bristol, Connecticut. After joining ESPN, he became one of three main anchors for '' Baseball Tonight''. During 2014 spring training, he began calling play-by-play for an ESPN affiliate. In the baseball off-season, he hosted '' SportsCenter'' and '' Outside the Lines''. He would also fill in for

Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (; born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and ...

on '' Olbermann''. He was the host of a movie podcast ''Cinephile'' on ESPN. In addition, he was also the main studio host for '' ESPN College Football'' and also hosted '' College Football Final''. On February 3, 2019, Virk was fired following an investigation regarding leaks of ESPN information to the media. Virk and ESPN later agreed not to pursue litigation against each other.

DAZN and MLB Network

In March 2019, it was announced that Virk would host the new MLB studio program ''ChangeUp'' for DAZN, a subscription

streaming media Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

service based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In addition, Virk will appear on MLB Network. He is also hosting boxing events. ''ChangeUp'' was canceled just prior to the 2020 MLB season.

WWE

On April 12, 2021, it was announced that Virk would become the new play-by-play commentator for ''

Monday Night Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show ...

'', replacing Tom Phillips. However, after a negative reception from the fans, six weeks later on May 25, he and the company mutually parted ways because Adnan claimed the schedule was too much for him and his family. He was replaced by Jimmy Smith.

Personal life

Virk was born to a

Pakistani Canadian , image = , pop = ''303,260'' (0.81%) , popplace = , region1 = , pop1 = 212,650 , region2 = , pop2 = 39,535 , region3 = , pop3 = 16,645 ...

Ahmadi Muslim family, and considers himself a practising

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. He lives in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

with his wife Eamon, whom he married in 2007. They have four sons.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Virk, Adnan 1978 births Living people Canadian Ahmadis Canadian expatriate journalists in the United States Canadian male journalists Canadian people of Pakistani descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters Canadian television sportscasters ESPN people Major League Baseball broadcasters National Basketball Association broadcasters Journalists from Toronto Professional wrestling announcers Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Toronto Raptors announcers