Kmflett's Blog

The voice of BBC cricket Jonathan Agnew is 66 on 4th April

He announced in April 2024 that he would be stepping down as the BBC cricket correspondent at the end of that summer, a job he had been doing with some distinction for many years. It seemed prudent. With the ever extending global nature of cricket, changing formats and often audiences too, it was time for others from a new generation to grapple with the challenge of the new. It’s not entirely clear who has filled Aggers role, perhaps in the context of unfortunate at best BBC budget restrictions. Perhaps also several people have, particularly in the context of the welcome coverage of women’s cricket now.

The good news though is that Agnew continues to host Test Match Special until at least 2028. I’ve been listening to TMS since the 1960s and it has evolved and changed over the years. Indeed it had to or it wouldn’t still be on air. Agnew has been an important part of the journey. Someone who shares the curiosity of the late Brian Johnston about what people are like and why they do what they do, a sense of basic humanity too often lacking in the world of 2026.

Agnew as a commentator very largely avoids what has unfortunately become the style of too many sports commentators, the shouty and the hyperbolic. He is mostly calm and thoughtful and above all someone who can be listened to as perhaps in some ways a voice of an English summer.

Of course now he is 66 it really is time for him to heed the generously given advice of the Beard Liberation Front and add even more gravitas to his commentaries by growing a beard.