A journalist who went from tea boy at a regional daily to achieve his dream of becoming a cricket correspondent has died aged 82.

Tributes have been paid to Ted Corbett, left, who began his career on York-based daily the Yorkshire Evening Press, now known just as The Press.

Ted would later go on to serve as cricket correspondent at the Daily, and also wrote columns for Indian newspaper The Hindu and its sister magazine Sportstar, as well as penning a number of books about the sport.

Born in Birmingham, he began at The Press in 1951, working there in two spells which sandwiched his National Service in Japan, where he worked on Japan News, the newspaper for British Forces in Korea.

According to an obituary in The Hindu, he had told a journalism trainer at The Press of his desire to be a cricket writer.

The man replied: “Don’t be ridiculous, those jobs are like goldust.”

Ted later moved to Fleet Street as a sub-editor for the Daily Herald, The Sun and the Daily Mirror, before realising his sporting dream with the Daily Star in 1982.

In all, he covered around 300 Test matches and 500 one-day internationals while following England’s national team.

He later founded his own cricket reporting agency, covering games as far afield as Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Ted retired in 2008 but continued to write for The Hindu and Sportstar until his 80th birthday.

Indian cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle posted on Twitter: “Deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ted Corbett. For a generation he provided a window to England cricket for the Sportstar and The Hindu.”

He died last Wednesday in Huntingdon, and is survived by long-term partner Joanne King.