Jonathan Agnew (born 4 April 1960) is an English cricket broadcaster and former professional cricketer, nicknamed "Aggers". Agnew had a successful first-class career as a fast bowler for Leicestershire from 1979 to 1990, returning briefly in 1992. He won three Test caps in the mid-1980s for England, and played in three One Day Internationals, his entire international career lasting just under a year. In county cricket, Agnew's most successful seasons came toward the end of his career. He was the second and third leading wicket-taker in 1987 and 1988 respectively, achieving 100 wickets in a season in the former. Overall, he took 666 first-class wickets at an average of 29.25. He was named 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 on Test Match Special. In 1991, he was part of an on- air incident, known as the "leg over", which was blamed for a two-mile traffic jam caused by drivers laughing; BBC 5 Live listeners voted it "the greatest sporting commentary ever" in 2005.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Agnew
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1796:
French naturalist Georges Cuvier delivered a lecture at the National Museum of Natural History on living and fossil remains of elephants and related species, founding the science of paleontology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Cuvier
1873:
The Kennel Club, the oldest kennel club in the world, was founded in the United Kingdom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kennel_Club
1949:
Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO, an organization that constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO
1976:
Norodom Sihanouk abdicated from the role of leader of Cambodia and was arrested by the Khmer Rouge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norodom_Sihanouk
2002:
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels signed a peace treaty, agreeing to follow the 1994 Lusaka Protocol and ending the decades-long Angolan Civil War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
fever pitch: (idiomatic) Extreme excitement. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fever_pitch
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. --Andrei Tarkovsky https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky