The Vision Sings : John Arlott the Voice of Cricket

For so many years John Arlott was known as the voice of cricket - but you didn't have to be a lover of the game to appreciate his greatness.

Arlott seized the listener's attention at once with his distinctive Hampshire accent, a peerless genius for coining a memorable phrase, and above all else, for his humanity.

So wide was his following beyond the boundaries of cricket, it was said that the audience for Test Match Special increased when rain stopped play.

Thousands would tune in simply to hear Arlott describe the covers being wheeled on and off.

It is as a describer of cricket that Arlott is best known - and rightly so.

For three decades he was the doyen of cricket commentators, and the word-pictures he painted of Test matches came to be admired all across the world.

But Arlott's enthusiasms stretched far beyond the confines of cricket grounds.

He was a young beat copper in Southampton, a poetry producer for the BBC and a highly-regarded minor poet in his own right; he wrote over 90 books, taking in cricket histories, poetry volumes, biographies, the theatre, cheese, football, photography, snuff, champagne, the wines of burgundy, and other subjects beside. In addition he found time to be a devoted dad, an exceptionally prolific journalist and a tireless campaigner for good causes close to his heart.

He also had a rare gift for friendship and hospitality: guests sitting down for lunch chez Arlott could expect to be seated still at midnight, as their host provided a limitless supply of reinforcements from his cellar - the compilation of which was a life's work in its own right.

Above all, Arlott was a deeply moral man. He abhorred violence or injustice of any kind, and the Liberal politics and respect for his fellow man he had learned in boyhood formed his character and gave him his ethical compass.

It was no accident that while the cricketing establishment was equivocal in its opposition to apartheid, Arlott courageously spoke out against sporting links with South Africa when the cause was far from fashionable.

It was not all bats, books and booze for Arlott. There was tragedy along the way, and on occasions the sunshine only served to make the shadows darker.

But amidst it all he retained the engaging humanity that was obvious to anybody who heard him speak.

The public recognised in Arlott a sincerity impossible to fake. In this country we do not readily invite strangers into our home: but Arlott - one of the great Englishmen of the 20th Century - was always welcome.

Even for people who would not know silly mid-off from a sideboard.