Peter Baxter (born

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

1947) is a former producer for BBC radio, best known as the producer of the programme of live cricket commentary, ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

''.

Career

Baxter joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in September 1965 after a spell in British Forces Broadcasting. He first worked on ''Test Match Special'' in 1966 and produced the programme from 1973–2007. He co-ordinated the

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

coverage from every one of the Test-playing nations, and was also frequently part of the commentary team himself. Baxter commentated on the end of the 1992 World Cup Final between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. In 2001 he was locked out of the ground by the groundsman at

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

, in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

; he and

correspondent

Jonathan Agnew Jonathan Philip Agnew, (born 4 April 1960) is an English cricket broadcaster and a former cricketer. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Uppingham School. He is nicknamed "Aggers" and, less commonly, "Spiro" – the latter, ...

eventually watched the action from a nearby fort. Baxter retired on 19 June 2007—with his last TMS production going off the air at 18:30. He was succeeded by

Adam Mountford ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BBC ...

, the former cricket producer of

BBC Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in ...

. In tandem with his work on

he was also the rugby union producer for eight years and the University Boat Race producer throughout the 1980s. He is a Fellow of The

Radio Academy The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to "the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK broadcasting and audio production". It was formed in 1983 and is run via a board of trustees, with a chair and a deputy chai ...

The Radio Academ
"Fellows"
and president of the Bedfordshire Cricket Board and Metro Blind Sports. In December 2009 Baxter started a regular

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

on the cricket website thecricketer.com. He has edited several books with the Test Match Special team and on his own account, 'World Cup - Cricket's Clash of the Titans', 'The Best Views From the Boundary', the autobiographical 'Inside the Box' and 'Can Anyone Hear Me?' on experiences with Test Match Special on tour.

References

External links

Peter Baxter's podcasts on the Cricketer websitePeter Baxter's Blog
1947 births Living people English cricket commentators BBC sports presenters and reporters Sportspeople from Derby English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English people {{England-cricket-bio-1940s-stub