Career
He was a left-arm medium-pace bowler, who took almost 400 wickets between 1976 and 1983, before retiring due to a severe shoulder injury. He also made one appearance for Bristol Rugby against Abertillery in 1980. Post-Cricket Wilkins moved into radio and television broadcasting, initially with the South African Broadcasting Corporation based in Johannesburg, where he became Editor Sport of the English Radio Service of the SABC (1984 to 1987).
Wilkins moved back to Wales in September 1987 to take up a presenting position with British Broadcasting Corporation Wales in radio and television, anchoring the Rugby Special Wales series (later to become known as "Scrum V") British Broadcasting Corporation Grandstand Wales, all of the British Broadcasting Corporation Wales rugby output and cricket programming, which included Glamorgan"s home matches.
He went on to commentate on British Broadcasting Corporation Network rugby and cricket. In 1994, Alan Wilkins was asked by the SABC to host the coverage of the 1994 South Africa cricket tour to England, the country"s first tour to England since 1965.
He returned to South Africa in 1995 to commentate on the 1995 Rugby World Cup for the SABC, which included the controversial semi-final in Durban between South Africa and France. He then flew straight back to London to host the 1995 Wimbledon Championships for the SABC. Still based with British Broadcasting Corporation Wales, but now not on a formal contract, Wilkins was asked to be a commentator on the 1996 Indian cricket tour of England, which was the start of his association with the television company Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Star Sports (Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, E. R. A. Seligman and A. J. Johnson (eds) (Macmillan, 1930-5, 15 vols)) based in Singapore.
In 1997, Wilkins was one of the lead commentators for M-Net SuperSport in South Africa for the 1997 British and Irish Lions Rugby Tour.
Later that year, Wilkins joined the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network commentary team in India for the One Day International series between India and Sri Lanka. He was part of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Star Sports commentary team, known as A Few Good Men which included Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harsha Bhogle and Geoffrey Boycott. He has been based in Singapore since February 2000.
His television portfolio includes India"s cricket tours, all Interstate Commerce Commission World events and the Champions League Twenty20.
He has hosted and commentated on Wimbledon since 1996 and with former Indian tennis star Vijay Amritraj since 1998. Wilkins and Amritraj"s tennis duties also extend to the Australian Open.
In golf, he hosts Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Star Sports" coverage of the Masters from Augusta, Georgia and covered all Asian Tour events and co-sanctioned events with Europe between 2004 and 2009. Wilkins hosted the 2013 ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf for the United States Professional Golf Association Tour World Feed Commentary from Royal Melbourne Golf Club, alongside Ian Baker-Finch, Brett Ogle, Ossie Moore and Ewan Porter.
In 2013 and 2014 Wilkins was one of the commentary team for the Indian Premier League.