In praise of … armchair commentators

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/03/armchair-sport-commentators

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Many of the tributes to the cricket commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins have pointed out that CMJ may be the last of his breed. Radio commentary was once the exclusive province of the professional sports journalist, men (they were almost invariably men) who may have played the game a bit in their youth, but whose careers and reputations were rooted in reporting, not fame on the field. Former players, when they first took to the microphone, did so as expert analysts, not commentators, a distinction that still holds in football. In cricket, that dividing line no longer exists, and when listening to Jonathan Agnew or Vic Marks, few will complain. Yet the establishment man CMJ and his iconoclastic predecessor John Arlott brought to the airwaves an enthusiast's idealised love of the game that ex-players, for all their canny tradecraft, can rarely emulate. Surely both breeds deserve a place in the commentary box?