Outstanding contribution award for CMJ

Christopher Martin-Jenkins, the cricket broadcaster and journalist who died earlier this year, will be honoured at the British Sports Book Awards with the Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing award. Martin-Jenkins' memoir, CMJ: A Cricketing Life, has also been shortlisted for the Cricket Book of the Year Award.

Martin-Jenkins, known throughout the game as CMJ, was a veteran of the BBC's Test Match Special commentary team, as well as a former editor of the Cricketer and cricket correspondent for the Telegraph and the Times. He died on January 1, after a year-long battle with cancer. The posthumous award will be collected by his wife, Judy, at the May 21 ceremony, which will fittingly be held at Lord's.

"CMJ was a colossus of the cricket world," David Willis, chairman of the BSBA, said. "He was the ultimate writer and commentator, a professional whose passion for the game earned him an unrivalled respect by his peers and an admiration from cricketers at all levels and fans around the world. We are delighted to be able to honour him with the Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing award."

Martin-Jenkins' final book will be up against On Warne, Gideon Haigh's highly regarded biography of Shane Warne, and Steve James' dissection of how England became the best Test team in the world, The Plan, in the cricket category. The awards, in their 11th year, celebrate the best in British sports writing across nine different categories.

Cricket Book of the Year shortlist

CMJ: A Cricketing Life by Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Gentlemen & Players by Charles Williams

On Warne by Gideon Haigh

The Plan: How Fletcher and Flower Transformed English Cricket by Steve James

The Valiant Cricketer - The Biography of Trevor Bailey by Alan Hill

We'll Get'Em in Sequins: Manliness, Yorkshire cricket and the century that changed everything by Max Davidson