5 Cricketer Turned Journalists
Aug 1, 2020 at 12:55 PM
A career in media is one of the most popular options for cricketers after retiring from the game. As the journalism sector is growing day by day, it has given a good opportunity to cricketers to earn good money after their retirement. A lot of cricketers have made a smooth transition from cricket to journalism.
Here we are presenting to you 5 cricketers who have gone on to become great journalists:
5 Cricketer Turned Journalists
5. Michael Atherton
The former England skipper retired in 2001 and slipped easily into the media. Since his retirement, Atherton has carved out a successful career in the media. He was a journalist for The Sunday Telegraph and succeeded Christopher Martin-Jenkins as The Times cricket correspondent in May 2008.
In March 2010, Atherton was recognized for his work as a journalist by being named Sports Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. Talking about his playing career, he played 115 tests and scored 7,728 runs at 37.69 batting average. He played 54 ODI matches and made 1,791 runs at 35.11 average.
4. Jonathan Agnew
Jonathan Agnew represented England in three Test matches. He also made three appearances in ODI matches. He also played county cricket for Leicestershire from 1979-1992. During this long period, he bagged a total of 666 wickets in 218 matches.
From 1990-1991, he started his journalism career as the chief cricket writer of Today newspaper, and covered England’s 1990-91 Ashes tour of Australia. He joined BBC Test Match Special (TMS) afterwards. Working at close quarters with the likes of Brian Johnston and Henry Blofeld at TMS, Agnew went on to become one of the most respected journalists of the game.
3. Mark Nicholas
Former English first-class cricketer Mark Nicholas was a right-handed batsman and medium-pace bowler. He represented Hampshire from 1978-1995 and scored 18,262 runs in 377 first-class test matches with an average of 34.39. He also took 72 wickets. In first-class one-day matches, he played 359 matches and scored 7,334 runs at 27.78 average.
Following his retirement, Nicholas has worked in broadcasting, first as a commentator for Sky Sports, and from 1999 to 2005 as the anchorman for Channel 4’s cricket coverage. He worked freelance in 1995 for Sky and others, before signing for Sky Sports in 1996 as anchorman, where his first major role was presenting domestic and international cricket. w He was named UK Sports Presenter of the Year in 2001 and 2005 by the Royal Television Society.
2. Peter Roebuck
He made a big name in journalism after retiring from the game. His writing skills grabbed the attention when he wrote a behind-the-scenes journal, It Never Rains, of Somerset’s progress during the 1983 county season. After retiring, Roebuck wrote columns for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age (Melbourne) and ESPNcricinfo, as well as commentating for the ABC radio cricket coverage in Australia.
1. Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud was a terrific cricketer for Australia. He represented Australia in 63 Tests, in which he took 248 wickets with his leg-spin apart from scoring 2201 runs with the bat at an average of just below 25. However, his illustrious career as a journalist overshadowed his playing career.
After his retirement from international cricket in 1964, he turned to full-time cricket journalism and commentary, dividing his time between Britain (where he worked for the BBC for many years before joining Channel 4 in 1999), and Australia (for the Nine Network).