My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. This week, we speak to Jonathan Agnew, who since a playing career that saw him represent England six times has become better known for being the much-loved voice of BBC’s Test Match Special for more than 30 years.

The highlight of my career was Ben Stokes’ Headingley century in the 2019 Ashes

Not just because it was a great game but I think I did it well. You never know if you get something right or not because you’re commentating to silence, but I think, looking at the overall reaction of people who were listening, I hit the target.

Then we had the World Cup final a few weeks before. That was special too. We were just blessed with two incredible games that, for a live commentator, are just manna from heaven. And England winning the Ashes in 2005.

Being on the bus the next day with dear old Freddie [Flintoff]. There are so many highlights doing this job but in terms of playing, I think getting Viv Richards out in a Test match [on debut at The Oval in 1984]. Shame I didn’t get many more!

Playing in the 1985 Ashes at Old Trafford was a low

It was a horrible game; it was wet, windy and a weather-ruined draw. That was the moment I knew I wasn’t going to get any further in Test cricket and it was the last Test match I played.

If I’m honest, I didn’t feel as though I belonged in that echelon. Every level you go up, it’s just that little bit tougher. I was always clinging to it a little bit. Although we went on to win the Ashes, I still rocked up to 10 Downing Street having taken no wickets and scored two not outs. I felt a bit of a fraud.

What’s funny is most people who listen to me now have forgotten the fact I ever played cricket. And I don’t mind that. In some ways I’m more comfortable doing this job than the last one.

My toughest opponent wasn’t who you might think

The man I could never get out was Derbyshire’s Kim Barnett. When you’ve spent a career bowling at people like Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge, it seems a bit crazy. But Kim played for England and was really unorthodox. He opened the batting, stood outside the leg stump so you had full view of all the stumps and he just batted a bit like Brendon McCullum.

Every ball he just smashed through the offside. It didn’t matter what line you bowled; he was just always there to deal with it. He had a great eye. While bowling at people like Viv and these guys was very tough, I don’t think I ever got Kim Barnett out, not even once and I must have bowled at him 30 or 40 times. I really hated bowling at Kim.

The beauty of this job is you do meet some unbelievable people

Every week on , I interview somebody from a different walk of life who loves cricket. For the Edgbaston Test next month, it’s Count Binface. But the least likely I’ve encountered doing this job is Mother Teresa. It was in Calcutta in 1991 when South Africa played international cricket for the first time since their readmission to world sport.

It was a hastily arranged tour and we ended up going to see her. There’s a very nice picture of me shaking her hand and being given a little prayer. She was tiny, looked very, very demure and very, very gentle. But actually, because her mission in Calcutta had been completely overrun largely by very loud Afrikaans-shouting television commentators, she lost her rag.

Every journalist, every news outlet was there crammed into her tiny little place. And this photograph, I often joke about it, if you had one of those speech balloons coming out of her mouth, it would probably be the closest she’d ever come to saying: “sod off”. She was basically shooing everybody out by the end.

Nelson Mandela was the worst interview I’ve ever done

It was one of the opening games of an England tour to South Africa in 1995 and we were playing in Soweto, where so much of the terrible troubles took place. It was an interesting choice of venue, yet a very significant one.

This game’s going on and you hear a helicopter coming in. It lands next to the field and Nelson Mandela gets out. This was the year after he’d been elected president. The word got out and a ground that was virtually empty was suddenly full. The game stopped; he met the teams and went on a circuit around the field, waving to everybody.

I managed to speak to him. There was no preparation, no warning; it was totally unexpected. I was out there in front with what must have been 50 or 60 journos pressed up behind me. I knew if I left any pause or gave any opportunity for others to come diving in, I’d have lost it. He spoke so slowly and so thoughtfully that I was just too eager. It was a disappointing interview but an extraordinary thing.