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Jim Swanton, 92, passes away

E W 'Jim' Swanton, 92, one of the world's best-known cricket correspondents and commentators, died at Chaucer Hospital in Canterbury, Kent, yesterday after a short illness.

During a 74-year career, Swanton wrote 23 books, spent countless hours at the microphone, and wrote most of his newspaper articles for The Telegraph, which he served as cricket correspondent for 29 years from 1946.

Swanton, who lived in Sandwich, Kent, was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1994. His 90th birthday was marked by a three-part BBC radio series.

Former British prime minister John Major, a great cricket enthusiast himself, described Swanton as "one of the great cricket writers of this century".

Former England captain David Gower said: "What was outstanding was his immense recall and his acute sense of what was good about the game and its moral values."

Lord Deedes, a former editor of The Telegraph who had known Swanton for more than 50 years, said: "I had lunch with him on Christmas Day and what was remarkable was that his mind was still sharp."