Roy Stride & Jonathan Agnew: 'My wife and I are going to a gig of his next week - we're getting the full roadie experience'

Jonathan Agnew, 55

A fast bowler for Leicestershire from 1979 to 1990, and winner of three Test caps for England, Agnew (right in picture) became the BBC's cricket correspondent after retiring from the game, and has been a commentator on 'Test Match Special' since 1991. He lives in Leicestershire with his wife, the journalist Emma Agnew

There's a real crossover between musicians and cricketers: many male musicians I've met, like Roy, wanted to be cricketers, while a lot of cricketers wanted to be musicians.

I first met Roy about five years ago when he came into the studio for a broadcast of Test Match Special, along with [fellow Scouting for Girls band member] Greg [Churchouse]. It's usually the case that Adam Mountford, our producer, has to brief me as to who musicians are, as I'm not up to speed on the modern pop world; but Scouting for Girls was different, as my wife has been a massive fan for some time – especially of the track "She's So Lovely".

Roy instantly struck me as a hell of a nice bloke, and I revealed to him before we went on air that Emma was a great fan. So when they started playing live in the commentary box, he chose that song and changed the lyrics to "Emma's So Lovely". I got a lot of brownie points for that.

I interview 10 to 15 celebrities on the programme each summer – but there is only a small list of people who I've stayed in touch with: Ed Miliband, Jim Carter [Carson in Downton Abbey] and Roy. The one thing they have in common is [their love of] cricket!

We met again that year at a Professional Cricketers' Association awards dinner. Scouting for Girls were playing, and Emma and I went backstage to see them before they sang. Emma went all gooey, and the band were brilliant and really fussed over her.

Roy is probably the only guest I've had on TMS more than once. He performed again, in another commentary box, a couple of years later at the Oval. He's a big cricket fan, so I arranged for him to spend an afternoon batting in the nets against some England boys, Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson.

What I didn't realise is that there is a lot more to Roy than fronting Scouting for Girls: he lives in a studio and spends a lot of the time writing for bands such as One Direction and the Australian group 5 Seconds of Summer.

He has also been responsible for the greatest act of kindness I've ever experienced. I mentioned that it was Emma's 50th birthday earlier this year, and asked, "What's the chance you guys could play to 50 people at our house?" They'd just done a gig in Cardiff to 10,000 people, and afterwards they drove to Leicestershire. When Roy made his surprise entrance she was blown away. They played for 30 minutes, which was unbelievable.

We're going to his gig in Nottingham next week – and he's promised us the full roadie experience, with drinks on the bus afterwards.

Roy Stride, 37

Stride is the frontman of pop band Scouting for Girls. The band have had four top 10 albums and several hit singles, including the chart-topping 'This Ain't a Love Song'. Stride has also written and produced records for artists including One Direction and Olly Murs. He lives in London with his wife and children

I grew up listening to Aggers; he's the voice of cricket and he's been there for all the glorious times – and all the disasters! We met just before he interviewed us for the "View from the Boundary" segment on Test Match Special. Having been a cricket fan all my life, it felt funny meeting him: I'd spent so much time listening to him, it was as if I already knew him.

We got invited on as we were promoting "This Ain't a Love Song", so we did the interview with Aggers and then we did a live session for him. I think we were one of the first to do this [new segment] on TMS, and they didn't have any mic stands. So we had Aggers holding one of the mics for the guitar. He knew we were big cricket fans, so afterwards he gave us a tour. He was like, "Have you met Botham? This is Roy…" It was surreal.

I was never a brilliant cricketer, but I always dreamt of playing for England. So hanging out with the TMS team was a dream come true. Just before the England team went off to Australia for the 2010/11 Ashes, we met players like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss. That's one of my favourite memories from that time: we'd had a number-one album, and single, but being among the England team was the cherry on top.

If I ever hear he's interviewing a band, I always send him some notes on them: he's done Harry from McFly, and when he interviewed Marcus Mumford I helped him with all the background stuff. Now every time I go to see a Test match, I go up to his box to say hi and grab a cup tea with him.

He's got a devilish, cheeky sense of humour – anyone who's listened to that famous "Botham just couldn't quite get his leg over!" moment will know – it got voted the best sports commentary moment ever.

He kept talking to me about Emma's 50th birthday, which was in July this year. Every time we spoke he'd say something like, "I just want to do something really special for her; she's such a special lady…" And I was always saying, "Yes, you should!" It must have been just 10 days before her birthday when he finally came out with it and asked, "Is there any chance you could play?" We had one day off and we went to her surprise garden party and played a set, which was a lot of fun.

People feel like they've known Aggers all their lives. I was taking my kids to football last weekend and I was speaking to the dads there. A couple of them are really into cricket, and to them it's much cooler that I know Aggers than that I'm in a band!

Scouting for Girls' latest album, 'Still Thinking About You', is out now