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Ralph was born in Essex, went to school at Brentwood,
before gaining a University of London degree after studying
at Portsmouth University.
He began his career in 1970 with BBC local radio before
progressing to national radio and television, presenting
programmes like Grandstand and Today's Sport as well
as a host of commentary and reporting assignments
for programmes such as Match of the Day and
Test Match Special. He won the Jack Fingleton Award as
Cricket Commentator of the Year in 2000. He also has
extensive experience of working in web-based media,
with special reference to audio/video areas. In addition to
working in radio in England, he has contributed to
stations in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, the Caribbean,
India, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and
Zimbabwe. He has reported on sports as varied as
cricket, soccer, rugby, golf, snooker, squash, table-tennis,
show-jumping, eventing, weightlifting, lacrosse, badminton,
tennis and basketball.
Ralph has compered a number of live stage shows
'Cricket Night Out', 'An Evening with Will Carling', etc.),
sports quiz shows, award functions and sections of the
Royal Tournament. He recently hosted a successful
touring stage show 'Sticky Wicket', and is an accomplished
after-dinner speaker. He has been involved in a number of
video projects and voice-over work, including two of cricket's
best-selling videos. He was responsible for a series of 'In
Conversation' audio cassettes with leading names in cricket.
Ralph's books include One Hundred Years of England v Australia,
A Funny Turn, How to Coach Cricket, Copybook Cricket,
Durham - the birth of a first-class county, Heading for
Victory and Ted Dexter's Little Cricket Book. He has
recently combined with Stephen Lamb to compile A Little Book of Cricket - an A to
Z, Winning the Ashes, A Little Book of Cricket
Legends and A History of Cricket. He was Editor of
Cricketers' Who's Who from 1984-88, and has also compiled A
Guide to British Golf Courses.
Ralph is also an active cricketer and golfer, is an ECB staff
coach, was on the coaching staff at Oxford University for a
number of years and coached the Norwegian national side that
won the European Trophy in 2003 and 2005. He was a ministerial nominee
on the Sports Council and acted as an advisor to a previous
Minister for Sport.
As well as freelancing for BBC Radio and Television, he
worked for British Forces Broadcasting Service, was the ICC's
first media consultant, was director of cricket operations with
Cricinfo between 2000 and 2003 when he left to set up Sportsline
Media Limited with Stephen Lamb.
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