Christopher Martin-Jenkins, one of the most authoritative writers and broadcasters on cricket, has been appointed MBE in the New Year's Honours List. Martin-Jenkins, known around the world as CMJ, was Chief Cricket Correspondent of The Times from 1999 until May this year and has been one of the voices of summer for 35 years as a regular commentator on BBC Radio's Test Match Special.

Spurning the family business in shipping, Martin-Jenkins, 63, was eager to report on cricket from a young age. While at school he wrote to Brian Johnston, the BBC commentator, asking how he could get his job. Eleven years later Martin-Jenkins became the BBC's Cricket Correspondent.

He held the position from 1973 to 1980 and 1985 to 1991, with an interregnum as Editor of The Cricketer, the magazine he had joined after coming down from Cambridge. He was Chief Cricket Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph before joining The Times. Among his many books are Assault on the Ashes (1974-75) and The Cricketer Book of Cricket Eccentrics and Eccentric Behaviour. He once made 99 at Lord's for Marlborough College but did not play first-class cricket.

Martin-Jenkins said that it was an honour to receive the appointment for his services to sport. “It has been a great privilege to go round the world writing about cricket,” he said yesterday. “The older one gets, the requirement for England to win becomes less important than the needs of the game as a whole, but nonetheless England's rare successes in Australia have been the most exciting.”

He pointed to the 5-1 victory by Mike Brearley's team in Australia in 1978-79 as a particularly happy tour and said that the biggest occasion on which he had reported was the 1977 Ashes centenary match in Melbourne. “The 1981 and 2005 Ashes were both outstanding as well,” he said.

In addition to seeing his beloved Sussex win their first County Championship title in 2003, Martin-Jenkins said that the occasions he felt most privileged to witness were Brian Lara's record innings. “I was there when he made 375 in Antigua against England [in 1994] and again ten years later when he made 400,” Martin-Jenkins said. “And I was lucky to see the end of his 501 for Warwickshire in 1994 when the Trent Bridge Test finished conveniently early.”

Martin-Jenkins writes occasional columns for The Times and other media, as well as broadcasting on Test Match Special, and remains a firm defender of cricket at all levels. “One concern for me is the contraction of cricket coverage towards the England team alone,” he said. “We should not forget the county game and the grass roots, without which you couldn't have an England team. Nor should we overlook the fascination of the world game generally.”