Ian Cowdroy - profile
Ian Cowdroy - entered MCC's commentator competition A chartered surveyor, Ian Cowdroy now also works for the Royal London Society for the Blind (RLSB).
A passion for cricket combined with an avid interest in working with blind and partially-sighted people meant he was one of the first to respond to MCC's competition in the summer of 2006 for volunteers to step into the Test Match Special commentary box in the Investec Media Centre at Lord's.
Cowdroy first started working for a blind and partially-sighted audience as part of a small team reading their local newspaper onto tape for the Kent Association for the Blind.
Since retiring from full-time surveying he has supported students at RSLB's residential college outside Sevenoaks as they study in mainstream subjects.
He is currently hoping to work with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to provide similar ball-by-ball commentary for blind and partially sighted spectators at his home county Kent's matches.
Painting a picture
"The team met for the first time when we were trained by the BBC London's Mark Church and I wasn't sure how we'd gel, but we quickly found out that our shared love of cricket allowed us to get on very well." Cowdroy explains.
"Different commentators bring different things to the service – some are great on statistics, others on the history of the game, others are naturally good at painting a picture for the blind and partially-sighted fans."
Before his first stint Cowdroy took one of his former college pupils to a local club game and asked him exactly what he wanted described.
Cowdroy on the pitch at 'The Home of Cricket' He learnt that continuous updates of scores, individual statistics and run-rates allow the blind and partially sighted to mentally calculate the state of the game.
"When I commentated on England Women v India in 2006 at Lord's I went and sat amongst some blind fans on my break to see how they picked up the action.
"Extraordinarily, from the sound of the ball hitting the bat they could usually tell where the ball was heading.
"Our job is to supplement their knowledge with everything from field placements to the appearance of the bowler running in, and make it as easy as possible to understand what is going on."
Even after three years of commentating at Lord's, Cowdroy still gets a great thrill from working at the matches and being able to get onto the outfield to chat to the groundsman and look at the pitch before the game.
For the Associate Member of MCC, who fell in love with cricket when Richie Benaud's Australians toured in 1961 and has worked with communication for the blind and partially sighted for some 15 years, the excitement Cowdroy feels each time he turns up at Lord's is audible in the commentary he provides.