“Knowing Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me, although winning the US Open was a pretty good second.”
CMJ, A Cricketing Life
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Christopher Martin-Jenkins, London, Simon and Schuster, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-85720-082-2
The autobiography of Christopher Martin Jenkins is several books rolled into one. In detailing his life, he covers his work as a written journalist – cricket correspondent of The Times and Daily Telegraph – editor of The Cricketer, BBC cricket correspondent and Test Match Special commentator. In addition there is a chapter on his year as president of the MCC.
There are chapters on his experience covering cricket in each of the test-playing countries which combine cricketing memories and a kind of travelogue plus analysis of the development of cricket in each of the countries.
CMJ is unashamedly old school. He is not afraid to express strong views, for example on the BBC: “Aiming to the mass market for obvious reasons, instead of keeping a proper balance between the original BBC mantra, to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ they seem to be obsessed with soccer and celebrities. When it comes to ‘news’ the emphasis is too often on what somebody has said rather than on something that has happened”.
He regrets the way the modern cricket writer operates: “The stress of having to keep on top of the ceaseless round of England stories’ and various press releases emanating from the old Test and County Cricket Board and its successor, the England and Wales Cricket Board, increased with the years. Most of the senior cricket correspondents gradually abandoned covering county cricket but I was loath to follow them and never did”.
Similarly he regrets the lack of easy access of players that journalists used to enjoy: “Conversations with players are sometimes confined to those orchestrated by the travelling team press officer, who would massage the news, if he could, as effectively as Alastair Campbell once controlled information from Downing Street”.
Predictably he is no fan of the referral system which, he argues, has “over-ruled a principle that applies to every cricketer in non-televised matches, namely that he or she should accept an umpire’s verdict without demur”.
At several places, he honestly and amusingly, recounts his known technological disasters – losing an entire article by pressing the wrong key on his laptop!
His Christian faith is the foundation of his life. It is referred to regularly and naturally throughout the book – whether writing about his student days at Cambridge, visiting the Cathedral in Perth during test matches or simply seeing answered prayer or “divine providence”.
My only criticism of the book would be that the detailed accounts of his early life and schooling could have been compressed a bit. Overall a good read and excellent book.