Two cricketing legends coming to Yorkshire

Cricket has been Jonathan Agnew’s life - whether playing it or commentating on it.

Now he is coming to Yorkshire with his latest stage show with fellow cricketing hero Phil Tuffnell.

An Evening with Aggers and Tuffers comes to the Grand Opera House, York next month after nearly a year of the duo delighting audience in the South.

“Phil is a very funny and fascinating person,” says Agnew. “And it really makes for a great show.”

‘Tuffers’ was the bad boy of English cricket in the 1990s, but the best spinner - left-arm or otherwise - as well. Known as The Cat because of his love of dressing-room naps and, rarely seen without a beer and a fag, Tuffnell has always been something of a folk hero.

Since retiring, he has carved out a successful TV career, appearing in I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, The Jump, Strictly Come Dancing and he is Matt Dawson’s opposing team captain in BBC’s long-running series, A Question of Sport.

“Cricket has been a part of my life growing up,” says Jonathan.

“My dad who was a farmer got me into it as he was always listening to Test Match Special on the radio.”

He started playing for Surrey before being signed up by Liecestershire and England as a seam bowler.

Although he won a number of awards, Agnew says it is more for his commentating for the BBC than for his cricket that most people will know him. Agnew began gaining experience as a journalist in 1987, while still playing cricket, when at the invitation of John Rawling he took off-season employment with BBC Radio Leicester as a sports producer. He joined Test Match Special in 1991, and is now the senior member of BBC’s cricket team, and is a regular on the radio and BBC Sport website and also fronted the television coverage of the 1999 Cricket World Cup as well as the Rio Olympics.

He is no stranger to controversy and is not afraid of speaking his mind on the state of England cricket today.

“We are playing too much cricket,” he says. “I understand that the television companies pay a lot of money and want to see a lot of cricket played but if England can’t put out their first team all the time then they are playing too much cricket. It also takes a toll on the players.”

He speaks from experience and is quoted as saying he missed much of his children’s childhood being away, and ultimately blamed the sport for the demise of his first marriage.

He is now married to Emma and the pair met while they both worked at Radio Leicester and she is now editor for East Midlands Today.

He is also worried about Test Cricket no longer being shown live on terrestrial television.

“I worry how the next generation are going to be inspired.”

The event is being run in aid of the Professional Cricketers’ Association Benevolent Fund.