- Mark Butcher
-
Mark Butcher 
Personal information Full name Mark Alan Butcher Born 23 August 1972
Croydon, Greater London, EnglandNickname Butch, Baz Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Batting style Left-handed Bowling style Right arm medium Relations AR Butcher (father),
GP Butcher (brother)International information National side England Test debut (cap 584) 5 June 1997 v Australia Last Test 30 December 2004 v South Africa Domestic team information Years Team 1992 – 2009 Surrey Career statistics Competition Test FC LA T20 Matches 71 280 191 13 Runs scored 4,288 17,870 4,460 210 Batting average 34.58 40.70 31.85 17.50 100s/50s 8/23 38/95 2/28 –/2 Top score 173* 259 139 60 Balls bowled 901 7,703 2,527 – Wickets 15 125 49 – Bowling average 36.06 33.89 45.10 – 5 wickets in innings – 1 – – 10 wickets in match – – – – Best bowling 4/42 5/86 3/23 – Catches/stumpings 61/– 263/– 63/– 4/– Source: Cricinfo, 6 August 2009 Mark Alan Butcher (born Croydon, London, 23 August 1972) is a former English Test cricketer, who played county cricket for Surrey from 1992 until his retirement from the sport in 2009. He was a left-handed batsman, and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler.
Contents
Cricket career
Butcher played all his county cricket for Surrey, for whom he made his first-class debut in 1992.[1][2] He made his Test match debut in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes series at Edgbaston.[3] His last Test match was in December, 2004,[3] when he had played 71 Tests, making eight centuries and averaging over 34.[4]
Butcher captained England once, in a draw with New Zealand in 1999 when Nasser Hussain was injured.[4] He never appeared in a One Day International (ODI) "Of players who have started in international cricket since the first ODI in 1970-71", "the runaway leader" for "person who has played most Tests without appearing in an ODI" is Butcher.[5]
Butcher enjoyed a reasonably good start to his Test career, hitting two half-centuries in five matches against a powerful Australian side.[2] He then struggled (along with the rest of the England side) against the West Indies that winter, averaging just 15.[2] However, in the next series he did very well, scoring two fifties and a century against South African side.[2] 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. A poor run of form followed, as he failed to score a half-century in twelve consecutive matches.[2] Despite being appointed stand-in captain for one Test against New Zealand, he was dropped from the side in the winter of 2000.[4]
Butcher's domestic form then suffered an uncharacteristic and dramatic decline, and he found himself languishing in the Surrey second eleven at the start of the 2001 English domestic season.[6] However, hard work and coaching from his father, Alan, himself a former Surrey and England player, sorted out his form.[4] 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).[2]
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 2003-4, 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.[2] A series of serious injuries kept Butcher out of the game for most of 2005,[4] and his last Test was the first Test in South Africa in December 2004.[2]
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.[7]
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.
He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of MCC in January, 2010.[8]
Test Centuries
Test Centuries of Mark Butcher. Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year [1] 116 13 South Africa Leeds, England Headingley 1998 [2] 116 15 Australia Brisbane, Australia Brisbane Cricket Ground 1998 [3] 173* 31 Australia Leeds, England Headingley 2001 [4] 105 39 Sri Lanka London, England Lord's 2002 [5] 123 41 Sri Lanka Manchester, England Old Trafford 2002 [6] 124 50 Australia Sydney, Australia Sydney Cricket Ground 2003 [7] 137 51 Zimbabwe London, England Lord's 2003 [8] 106 55 South Africa Nottingham, England Trent Bridge 2003 Music career
Butcher is also a guitar-player and singer - he sang a ballad at Surrey and England team-mate Ben Hollioake's funeral.[9] 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. Released in 2010, it includes "You're Never Gone", the song he wrote in tribute to Hollioake.[10][11]
Personal life
He was born to a Jamaican mother and an English father.[12][13]
Butcher attended Cumnor House Prep School,[14] Trinity School and Archbishop Tenison's School in Croydon, and supports the local football team, Crystal Palace.[15]
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.[10]
At one time during his playing career, Butcher was married to former England and Surrey team-mate Alec Stewart's sister Judy.[4] Surrey's former coach and player, Alan Butcher, is his father, and his brother, Gary, played for Glamorgan and Surrey.[4]
References
- ^ http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4225/f_Batting_by_Team.html
- ^ a b c d e f g h http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4225/f_Batting_by_Season.html
- ^ a b http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4225/Test_Matches.html
- ^ a b c d e f g http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/9327.html
- ^ http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/134118.html?wrappertype=print
- ^ http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/4/4225/Second_Eleven_Championship_Matches.html
- ^ "Knee injuries force Butcher to retire". CricInfo. August 9, 2009. http://www.cricinfo.com/countycricket2009/content/story/418254.html. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
- ^ "Ashes adversaries awarded MCC life membership" Retrieved 2 Sep 2010.
- ^ Heinrich, Scott (2003-04-06). "Butcher's tribute to unsung hero". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/2920343.stm. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ a b http://www.surreycricket.com/news/butcher-tunes-in-ahead-of-season,5862,NS.html
- ^ Amazon page for Songs from the Sun House Retrieved 3 Sep 2010.
- ^ The Hidden race
- ^ Cricket: Mark of a cool hero
- ^ Cricinfo article: "My School Sport: Mark Butcher"
- ^ "Football: World Cup 2002: Test aces lifted by triumph". Sunday Mirror. 16 June 2002. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_/ai_n12844082.
External links
Categories: 1972 births | Living people | England Test cricketers | English people of Jamaican descent | English cricket captains | English cricketers | Surrey cricket captains | Surrey cricketers | People from Croydon | Cricket commentators
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
