Sky Sports's Deadline Day coverage usually generates a headline or two and yesterday was no exception.
This time, however, it was former England Test match cricketer Dominic Cork who was the centre of attention as he made an unexpected debut as a football reporter at Stoke City's Britannia Stadium.
"Not many moves will raise more eyebrows than Dominic Cork's switch from cricket to football," says the Daily Mail. "The former England international has worked with Sky Sports many times before as a cricket expert, but his appearance on Sky's deadline day coverage confused many viewers."
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Cork was "one of Sky's busier reporters" yesterday, reports The Independent, as Stoke agreed deals for Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony and landed defender Bruno Martins Indi from Porto.
But it was the cricketer's unexpected emergence as a football reporter that will go down as "one of the most surprising moves of transfer window", adds the paper.
In terms of spectacle, Cork's appearance may pale in comparison to the sight of a reporter being assaulted with a purple sex toy, as happened in 2014, when Sky's Deadline Day coverage reached its nadir, but it did take events to "new surreal heights", says the Daily Telegraph.
The paper adds: "The former Lancashire all-rounder, who is well-known Stoke fan, even managed to grab an interview with Wilfried Bony through a car window."
It was unclear whether the Ivorian striker was aware that he was being interviewed by an English sporting legend, but the sight left some bemused.
The Telegraph was also surprised that some journalists, who have been granted access to Premier League club facilities in order to maintain calm since the events of Deadline Day two years ago, opted to report from "a number of seemingly random locations", with Vinny O'Connor, who was covering Everton, electing to provide updates from a building site.
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