Jonathan Philip Agnew, is an English cricket broadcaster and a former professional cricketer. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Uppingham School. He is nicknamed "Aggers", and, less commonly, "Spiro" – the latter, according to Debrett's Cricketers' Who's Who, after former US Vice-President Spiro Agnew.Agnew had a successful first-class career as a fast bowler for Leicestershire from 1979 to 1990, returning briefly in 1992. In first-class cricket he took 666 wickets at an average of 29.25. Agnew won three Test caps for England, as well as playing three One Day Internationals in the mid-1980s, although his entire international career lasted just under a year. In county cricket, Agnew's most successful seasons came toward the end of his career, after his last international match, when he had learned to swing the ball. He was second- and third-leading wicket-taker in 1987 and 1988 respectively, including the achievement of 100 wickets in a season in 1987. He was named as one of the five Cricketers of the Year by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1988.
While still a player, Agnew began a career in cricket journalism and commentary. Since his retirement as a player, he has become a leading voice of cricket on radio, as the BBC Radio cricket correspondent and as a commentator on Test Match Special. He has also contributed as a member of Australian broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Grandstand team.
Agnew's on-air "leg over" comment on Test Match Special, made to fellow commentator Brian Johnston in 1991, provoked giggling fits during a live broadcast and reaction from across England. The incident has been voted "the greatest sporting commentary ever" in a BBC poll; Michael Henderson, one of Agnew's peers and rivals, has described him as "a master broadcaster ... the pick of the sports correspondents at the BBC."
Wikipedia
“It's not easy putting a rubber on.”
To fellow commentator Michael Vaughan, in reference to Kevin Pietersen changing the rubber grip on his batting handle.
BBC Radio 5, The Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Show, 6 June 2011, 3 August 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hf8wq,
“He just didn't quite get his leg over.”
Commentating on Ian Botham trying but failing to step over the stumps
[The Wit of Cricket, Barry, Johnston, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ygNa9iKqu2oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22jonathan+agnew%22+stewart+test&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=He%20just%20didn't%20quite%20get%20his%20leg%20over!&f=false, Hodder & Stoughton, 9781444715026]
