Mark Butcher
CountryEngland
FullnameMark Alan Butcher
Birth date23 August 1972 (age 54)
Birth placeCroydon, London, England
Heightft5
Heightinch11
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
RoleOpening batsman
FamilyAlan Butcher (father),
Gary Butcher (brother)
Internationaltrue
Testdebutdate5 June
Testdebutyear1997
TestdebutagainstAustralia
Testcap584
Lasttestdate30 December
Lasttestyear2004
LasttestagainstSouth Africa
Club 1Surrey
Year 11992–2009
Columns4
Column 1Test
Matches 171
Runs 14,288
Bat avg 134.58
100s/50s 18/23
Top score 1173*
Deliveries 1901
Wickets 115
Bowl avg 136.06
Fivefor 10
Tenfor 10
Best bowling 14/42
Catches/stumpings 161/–
Column 2FC
Matches 2280
Runs 217,870
Bat avg 240.70
100s/50s 238/95
Top score 2259
Deliveries 27,703
Wickets 2125
Bowl avg 233.89
Fivefor 21
Tenfor 20
Best bowling 25/86
Catches/stumpings 2263/–
Column 3LA
Matches 3191
Runs 34,460
Bat avg 331.85
100s/50s 32/28
Top score 3139
Deliveries 32,527
Wickets 349
Bowl avg 345.10
Fivefor 30
Tenfor 30
Best bowling 33/23
Catches/stumpings 363/–
Column 4T20
Matches 413
Runs 4210
Bat avg 417.50
100s/50s 4–/2
Top score 460
Deliveries 4–
Wickets 4–
Bowl avg 4–
Fivefor 4–
Tenfor 4–
Best bowling 4–
Catches/stumpings 44/–
Date6 August
Year2009
Sourcehttp://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9327.html Cricinfo

Mark Alan Butcher (born 23 August 1972) is an English cricket commentator and former English Test cricketer, who played county cricket for Surrey from 1992 until his retirement in 2009. He was a left-handed batsman, and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler who was also capable of bowling off spin.[1]

Biography

He went to Cumnor House School in Purley from the age of five to thirteen before moving to Trinity School in Croydon.[2] He first played for his school's U-11 side at the age of seven.[3] He was also picked up by the Surrey U-11 side and also was selected in Surrey's U-19 team.

He married Alec Stewart's sister Judy but the marriage did not last.[4] He dealt with various personal issues especially in 2000 following the break up of his marriage and his axing from the England side at the end of 2000. He also had issues with alcohol and depression.[5]

Cricket career

Butcher played all his county cricket for Surrey, for whom he made his first-class debut in 1992.[6][7] He made his Test match debut in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes series at Edgbaston.[8] He opened the batting on his debut test but did not produce the kind of scores that he would have liked but England managed to win that match by nine wickets albeit off a double century from Nasser Hussain.[9] His last Test match was in December 2004,[8] when he had played 71 Tests, making eight centuries and averaging over 34.[10]

Butcher captained England once, in a draw with New Zealand in 1999 when Nasser Hussain was injured.[10] He never appeared in a One Day International (ODI). Of players who have started in international cricket since the first ODI in 1970–71, Butcher is the "runaway leader" in terms of playing the most Test matches without appearing in an ODI.[11][12] Butcher played in 71 Tests, but as of April 2004 no other player in the ODI era had played in more than 30 Tests without playing in an ODI.[12]

Butcher enjoyed a reasonably good start to his Test career, hitting two half-centuries in five matches against a powerful Australian side.[7] He then struggled (along with the rest of the England side) against the West Indies that winter, averaging just 15.[7][13] However, in the next series he did very well, scoring two fifties and a century against South Africa.[7] Though he followed that with another impressive hundred against Australia in the first Ashes Test that winter, he then failed for the rest of that series.[14] A poor run of form followed, as he failed to score a half-century in twelve consecutive matches.[7] Despite being appointed stand-in captain for one Test against New Zealand, he was dropped from the side in the winter of 2000.[10] He subsequently lost his place in the Test side to Marcus Trescothick.

Butcher's domestic form then suffered a dramatic decline, and he found himself languishing in the Surrey second eleven at the start of the 2001 English domestic season.[4][15] However, hard work and coaching from his father, Alan, himself a former Surrey and England player, sorted out his form.[10] He was drafted into the Test side to play the Australians and strong showings throughout that series culminated in a superb innings of 173 not out at Headingley, as England successfully chased 315 to win (although the series was by then lost).[7][16][17][18][19]

After that series, Butcher continued to prosper until a run of injuries saw him lose his place. Consistent performances had made him an essential component of the England batting line-up, to be relied upon in a crisis. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the series in the West Indies in 2003–04,[20] when he always batted well irrespective of the sometimes poor showing by various partners at the other end, and he passed fifty in four out of seven innings.[7] He was the top runscorer for England in England's emphatic series win in Caribbean by smacking 296 runs in four matches. A series of serious injuries kept Butcher out of the game for most of 2005,[10] and his last Test was the first Test in South Africa in December 2004.[7] The series of injury setbacks also subsequently put a dramatic end to his run of 42 successive test match appearances for England. During his illustrious yet volatile test career, he was regarded as one of the worst overnight resumers in test cricket as he often gets out quickly without adding much runs to his overnight score as he averages just 26.93 in 31 innings when it comes to starting the proceedings from overnight scores.[21]

Thereafter, he struggled to recover properly from numerous injury set-backs, and although he retained the official captaincy of Surrey his appearances for the team became sporadic. In August 2009, Butcher announced his retirement from all first-class cricket after a troubling knee injury.[22]

Since his retirement as a player, he has commentated on cricket for Sky Sports and has appeared as an expert summariser on Test Match Special, for Star Sports and ESPN Cricinfo.[23] He appeared in Sky Sports documentary titled You Guys Are History where he explores and examines why there is a massive decline in black cricketers in England since the turn of the century.[24][25]

He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in January 2010.[26]

Test centuries

Mark Butcher's Test centuries
NoRunsAgainstCity/CountryVenueYear
1116South AfricaLeeds, EnglandHeadingley1998
2116AustraliaBrisbane, AustraliaBrisbane Cricket Ground1998
3173*AustraliaLeeds, EnglandHeadingley2001
4105Sri LankaLondon, EnglandLord's2002
5123Sri LankaManchester, EnglandOld Trafford2002
6124AustraliaSydney, AustraliaSydney Cricket Ground2003
7137ZimbabweLondon, EnglandLord's2003
8106South AfricaNottingham, EnglandTrent Bridge2003

Music career

Butcher is also a guitar player and singer – he sang a ballad at Surrey and England teammate Ben Hollioake's funeral.[27] Previously, in 2001, he appeared on the 'Jamie Theakston Cricket Show' on BBC Radio 5 Live, where he played a live acoustic version of "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)" by The Stranglers with the former Stranglers' frontman Hugh Cornwell. In early 2008, Butcher started recording his debut album, Songs from the Sun House.[28] Released in 2010, it includes "You're Never Gone", the song he wrote in tribute to Hollioake.[29][30]

Mark Butcher partnered Sarah Brightman on the second series of Just the Two of Us aired on BBC One in January 2007; they came third overall.[29]

Personal life

He was born to a Jamaican mother and an English father.[31][32]

Butcher attended Cumnor House Prep School,[33] Trinity School and Archbishop Tenison's School in Croydon, and supports the local football team, Crystal Palace.[34]

At one time during his playing career, Butcher was married to former England and Surrey teammate Alec Stewart's sister Judy.[10] Surrey's former coach and player, Alan Butcher, is his father, and his brother, Gary, played for Glamorgan and Surrey.[10]

References

  1. ^ Updated:December 3, Shiamak Unwalla| & Ist, 2016 1:36 Pm (2015-08-23). "Mark Butcher: 10 interesting things to know about the former England cricketer". Cricket Country. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  2. ^ "Cumnor's core values gave Mark Butcher belief | The Cricketer". www.thecricketer.com. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  3. ^ "My School Sport: Mark Butcher (19 Aug 1998)". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  4. ^ "'It would've been nice to have won an Ashes, having lost four'". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  5. ^ "Butcher reveals torment of cricket exit". cricket.com.au. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  6. ^ Batting by Team. Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  7. ^ Batting by season. Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  8. ^ Test matches. Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  9. ^ "Full Scorecard of Australia vs England 1st Test 1997 - Score Report | ESPNcricinfo.com". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  10. ^ Mark Butcher. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  11. ^ "What are the best figures by a captain in ODIs and T20Is?". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  12. ^ Lynch, Steven (5 April 2004). "Most Tests without an ODI, and Zaheer's road". Cricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  13. ^ Wilde, Simon. "Mark Butcher: 'Another tour that left us thinking: Are we ever going to be able to beat these guys?'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  14. ^ "1st Ashes Test: Butcher conquers his fear of failure (23 November 1998)". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  15. ^ Second Eleven Championship Matches. Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  16. ^ "Full Scorecard of Australia vs England 4th Test 2001 - Score Report | ESPNcricinfo.com". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  17. ^ Wilde, Simon. "Mark Butcher's Headingley heroics? Nasser Hussain's night heist? This England chase was even better". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  18. ^ Wigmore, Tim (2021-08-20). "The forgotten Ashes miracle: When Mark Butcher flayed the greatest bowling attack in the world". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  19. ^ "Top Ashes moments: Mark Butcher's big Headingley ton and Richie Benaud's tactical switch". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  20. ^ "One series win in 50 years: How the Caribbean remains England's final frontier". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  21. ^ "Who are the worst and best overnight 'resumers' in Test cricket?". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  22. ^ "Knee injuries force Butcher to retire". CricInfo. 9 August 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  23. ^ "Mark Butcher's analysis of 'a stinker' of a decision by third umpire puts India's host commentators to shame"
  24. ^ "Why has the number of Black cricketers in England dropped?". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  25. ^ "You Guys Are History: Phillip DeFreitas, Monte Lynch and more open up on racism they faced". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  26. ^ "Ashes adversaries awarded MCC life membership" Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  27. ^ Heinrich, Scott (6 April 2003). "Butcher's tribute to unsung hero". BBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  28. ^ Updated:July 3, Jaideep Vaidya| & Ist, 2014 11:40 Pm (2013-08-23). "Mark Butcher: A talented cricketer-turned-musician". Cricket Country. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
  29. ^ Butcher in the recording studio. Surrey Cricket (18 January 2008).
  30. ^ Songs from the Sun House. amazon.co.uk
  31. ^ The Hidden race. Kickitout.org. Retrieved on 22 May 2018.
  32. ^ Cricket: Mark of a cool hero. Independent.co.uk (22 February 1998). Retrieved on 2018-05-22.
  33. ^ Cricinfo article: "My School Sport: Mark Butcher". Content-usa.cricinfo.com (19 August 1998). Retrieved on 2018-05-22.
  34. ^ "Football: World Cup 2002: Test aces lifted by triumph". Sunday Mirror. 16 June 2002.