Hi Jonathan, how are you? For those that may not know, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
My name is Jonathan Agnew and I’m a former professional cricket player. I played for Leicestershire and for England before I retired in 1990 to become a cricket correspondent for The Today newspaper, which I was at for six months, before becoming the BBC cricket correspondent in the spring of 1991. I’ve basically been that ever since! Until I retired from that last October. Now I’m the presenter of Test Match Special without the correspondent bit.
You made your debut for Leicestershire in 1978 and retired from professional cricket in the early 90s, but you started your career in journalism in 1987. How did you get into journalism in your county cricket days?
In those days, being a professional cricketer meant you weren’t employed in the winter and we weren’t paid very much. So, that meant you needed to find a job. I drove a lorry for a couple of winters, I worked in a window-making factory, anything really just to survive six months and pay the mortgage. And then that year, in 1987, I was approached by a fellow at BBC Leicester who I knew named John Rawling. He said come and work for us, I think you’ll enjoy it and that’s exactly what I did. I loved radio. I fell in love with radio straight away and that’s how it all began.
Could you give an overview of TMS for those who might not know a huge amount about cricket?
Yes, it’s the longest running sports radio programme by a country mile – it’s over 70 years old now. It’s basically commentary on a cricket match but Test Match Special is so much more than that. The speed of cricket determines that you have to have conversations between the action and so it becomes almost like a soap opera. People tune in for the chatter and the company and the colour as well as what’s happening with the cricket.
Why do you think radio is such a powerful medium, especially within sport?
I grew up with The Buggles singing Video Killed The Radio Star in 1980, so it always seemed to me that TV was going to take over the world. But it’s been quite the opposite really. I think that radio has just thrived, despite how much digital media has grown. People always say to me, oh I remember exactly where I was when… Ben Stokes got the winning runs at Headingly in 2019 or whatever it may be. With radio, you have to visualise everything, you’ve really got to interpret the commentary. You have to turn it into an image, create something in your mind and that burns itself into your memory. That’s why I think, say with cricket, radio works so well. Radio is company, it’s companionship, it’s all those things television can’t be.
What role do you think radio plays in shaping the experience of sports fans?
Well, I think it takes you there. If you’re a good commentator, and I’m always trying to coach people coming up, you have to take that listener to where you are. You use the sounds of the crowd, you describe what’s going on around you, what you can see, what you can feel, what you can smell. All of those things add to the effect of taking the listener to that place. A blind listener once came to me and said you talk about a straight drive but it can’t be a straight drive or the ball would have hit the stumps behind the bowler, so which side of the stumps did it go? That precise detail – that’s what people want. The more detail you give them, the more you’re taking them to that place.
In your career, you played 364 games of professional cricket and have made countless episodes of Test Match Special. What was your favourite ground to play at and where is your favourite to commentate?
I guess I’ve got to say Lord’s really because it’s kind of cricket Head Quarters. It was always a real privilege to play there. As for commentating? I mean I love going to Adelaide and I’ll be going again this winter. One of my local ones, Trent Bridge, is always a lovely place to work as well – it’s a very friendly atmosphere there. It’s a home game for me. But if I had to pick an overseas one, it would be Adelaide.
How do you balance detail with excitement in your commentary?
I think when there is proper excitement, take Ben Stokes at Headingly again, that’s when you drop the colourful detail because you’re trying to create tension. And for me, that’s through short sentences. It’s often using hushed voices rather than shouting, because that’s when people are reaching for the radio. They’re turning it up. They want to know what’s going on. And not to state the obvious, but if you need eight runs to win with one wicket to go, just keep repeating that. You don’t need to do anything else because that itself is drawing people into the excitement.
How big of an influence do you think radio, and TMS in particular, have had on cricket and growing the sport?
Oh huge. Ever since cricket on television has moved behind a paywall, radio’s role has grown enormously. Our audience has grown enormously and the BBC has been able to invest more resources into Test Match Special as a result. A lot of people’s first contact with cricket now is through radio.
Throughout the last England-India Test, TMS received 14.3 million digital listening requests. What space do you think radio has within the modern game and how do you think it will impact the future of cricket?
That’s difficult because cricket needs television. It needs television to pay the rights, so television calls the shots. But again, cricket is only widely accessible through radio, so it’s going to be a balance. And to be fair, I think the ECB has got that balance right, getting its money from Sky and its audience from Test Match Special.
You’ve had so many guests on TMS for your View from the Boundary feature, including Daniel Radcliffe, Elton John and Malala Yousafzai to name a few. Who has been your favourite so far? And who has been your favourite TMS co-commentator?
Co-commentator has to be Phil Tufnell. I love working with him. He’s very sharp, very bright and a good friend. He likes to play the fool but he’s not at all, he’s extremely intelligent and very quick.
View from the Boundary is actually my favourite part of the programme and it’s the most challenging. My favourite would have to be Elton John because I’ve always been such a fan of his music. I didn’t interview him live as I normally would because he was actually doing a concert at Battersea, but I interviewed him sitting on his piano stool just before he went on to do his gig, which was quite special.
Music is an important part of pre-match prep. Out of everyone on the TMS team, who would you give control of the speaker to? And what artists do you think would feature on their playlist?
It wouldn’t be Michael Vaughan. His music taste is terrible. Daniel Norcross probably has quite similar taste to me… go for Daniel Norcross. I think he’d be quite classical. I mean, I love music and all different types of it but rather than be subjected to Michael Vaughn’s playlist, Daniel would be a safer bet.
And finally, we come to the most important question. What has been your favourite ever Test Match Special cake?
When Test Match Special turned 50 years old, Queen Elizabeth came to Lord’s and presented us with a massive great Dundee cake. We’re all lined up and no one knows what to say and there’s a tricky moment of silence. So I asked, “Did you make it yourself?” And she looked at me, she’s laughing, and said “Not personally, but specially.” The next day the headline of The Telegraph read “Queen Bowls Aggers a Googly”, which was quite nice. That was my favourite.
