Important personalitiesBack

Following his graduation in 1967 Martin-Jenkins joined The Cricketer magazine as deputy editor under EW Swanton. In March 1970 he left to join the BBC Radio Sports News department and subsequently commentated on his first match, a one-day international between England and Australia, in 1972. His last commentary, 40 years later, was for TMS on England's third Test against Pakistan in Dubai in February 2012.

He joined the TMS team in 1973 and was appointed cricket correspondent in succession to Brian Johnston in 1973 and worked as cricket correspondent for the BBC (1973–1980, 1985–1991), the Daily Telegraph (1990–1999) and The Times (1999–2008). Mike Atherton replaced him as The Times Chief Cricket Correspondent on 1 May 2008 although CMJ continued contributing to the Times cricket pages, filing his last article on the death of Tony Greig on 31 December, the day prior to his own death. He also was a BBC TV commentator for their cricket coverage between 1981 and 1985, before returning to radio.

His Daily Telegraph obituarist wrote of his radio commentary that: "Nobody excelled him... in what he regarded as the first duty: that of giving a precise, clear, well-informed and accurate account of every ball that was bowled and every stroke that was played." Scyld Berry wrote: "What made him so good as a radio commentator, apart from his precise and unforced diction, was that he came closer than anyone to combining the knowledge of an expert with the enthusiasm of a student."

He was renowned among his broadcasting colleagues for a certain vagueness regarding practical matters. Jonathan Agnew described how on one occasion he arrived at Lord's for a match which unfortunately was due to be played on the other side of London at the Oval. He also struggled with modern technology, once mistaking the television remote control in his hotel room for his mobile phone. When attempting to email a report to his newspaper, he would occasionally press the Delete button rather than the Send button, causing him much consternation.

Martin-Jenkins is the author of The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers. Altogether he wrote or edited 25 books including The Wisden Book of County Cricket (1981); Bedside Cricket (1981); Twenty Years On: Cricket’s years of change (1984); Cricket: a way of life (1984); Grand Slam (1987); Cricket Characters (1987); Sketches of a Season (1987); and Ball by Ball: The Story of Cricket Broadcasting (1990) and finally concluding with his autobiography, CMJ – A Cricketing Life. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. He was also President of the MCC 2010–11, a rare honour for a journalist. In 2007 he was invited to deliver the annual MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, becoming the only career journalist and broadcaster to do so.

He edited The Cricketer from 1980 and was President of The Cricket Society from 1998 to 2008.