Former cricket writer Ted Corbett dies aged 82

Ted Corbett, the former cricket correspondent of the Daily Star, and a long-term columnist of the Hindu, has died at the age of 82.

Corbett, whose career began as a tea-boy on the Yorkshire Evening Press, enjoyed a long and varied career that was launched in earnest in 1951, when travelled to Japan on national service, and ended up being based in Tokyo as editor of the armed forces' newspaper, Japan News.

He worked for a variety of publications on his return to England, including the Daily Herald, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph and Daily Express, before being appointed the Daily Star cricket correspondent in 1982.

In 1989, Corbett set up his own sports agency, and went on to become a regular contributor to The Hindu and its sister publication, Sportstar, an association that spanned 25 years.

Corbett was an ever-cheerful and engaging presence in a variety of press boxes across the world. "I followed England for 300 Tests and 500 one-day internationals and, like Fred Trueman, I am bloody tired after all the effort," he said last year, after finally retiring at the age of 81.

In the course of his career, Corbett also reported on rugby, football, snooker, golf and athletics. He wrote one work of fiction, The Great Cricket Betting Scandal, which was published in 2000, in addition to a variety of cricket books, including Cricket on the Run: 25 Years of Conflict (1990) and the Wisden Book of Test Captains (1991), which he compiled in conjunction with his long-term partner, Joanne King.