I've worked all around the cricketing world and there is nothing quite like TMS.

The reputation of the programme precedes it and for that you have to look at both the history and the brilliant, brilliant broadcasters.

When it started it would have been the primary source of information and comfortably the most popular and accesible way of following cricket.

It started as number one and therefore established itself, way ahead of any television and the modern gadgetry and gimmickry associated with that.

And broadcasters like Brian Johnston obviously helped make it an institution.

I've been in the box a few times before, but South Africa's 2003 tour is the first time I've been a working member of the team in England.

I would have been daunted 10 or 15 years ago following in the footsteps of the likes John Arlott and Brian Johnston, but now I view it very much as an honour and you're certainly aware that your walking into living history.

That makes it sound something like a museum, but if it ever had any old crustiness it has been knocked off and the programme is moving with the times.

People have worked hard to keep it fresh and it's one of the great pleasures to work with a guy like Graeme Fowler who is hugely fun and irreverant, young and vibey.

That, combined with its history, and of course cricket, is why TMS remains as popular today as it did in the days before television.