Mike Atherton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Mike Atherton England (Eng)
Batting style	Right-handed batsman (RHB)
Bowling type	Leg spin
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	115	54
Runs scored	7728	1791
Batting average	37.69	35.11
100s/50s	16/46	2/12
Top score	185*	127
Overs bowled	68	0
Wickets	2	0
Bowling average	151.0	-
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	N/A
Best bowling	1/20	-
Catches/stumpings	83/0	15/0
As of 27 August 2001 Source: Cricinfo.com

Michael Andrew Atherton (born March 23, 1968, in Failsworth, near Oldham, in Lancashire) is a broadcaster, journalist and retired cricket player. He captained England in 54 Test matches, more than any other player.

Mike Atherton first came to the eye of the English selectors while captaining his school, Manchester Grammar School. His performances led to his selection for the England under-19 team, which he captained aged 16. He attended Downing College, Cambridge to read History. By the age of 18 he had been selected to play for Cambridge University, where he was awarded a blue. A year later he made his debut for Lancashire. During this time he would represent both his University, which he would captain to the quarter finals of the Benson & Hedges cup in 1989 and his county. In this same year he was also to make his debut for England, against Australia at Old Trafford, his home ground. He did not enjoy an especially productive debut being dismissed for a duck in the first innings. He did, however, show his potential in the second innings when he made a patient 47.

He was not selected for the 1989-90 tour of the West Indies but came back into the England side in real style in the summer of 1990 when he made centuries against New Zealand and India. Cementing his place in the England team, Atherton won the title of Young Cricketer of the Year.

In the winter of 1990-91, Atherton toured Australia where he had a quiet tour apart from a dogged hundred in the Sydney Test match. In the end, this was his only century against Australia.

By 1991, however, his degenerative back condition, Ankylosing Spondylitis, which was to dog him for much of his playing career, and ultimately curtail it, had come to light, and Atherton was to miss England's winter tour to New Zealand. It was also this condition that forced him to stop bowling his sometimes effective leg-spin.

In 1991 and 1992, injury, lack of form and selectorial whims made Atherton an irregular member of the England team and he had a particularly unhappy tour of India and Sri Lanka in 1992-93. This tour included a famous incident where Atherton and Alec Stewart - Atherton's main rival in the race to succeed Graham Gooch as captain - ended up at the same end of the pitch whilst batting together with Stewart eventually being given run out. Many thought it should have Atherton walking back to the dressing room.

So it was that when Australia arrived for the 1993 Ashes, Atherton's place in the team was not assured. However, a consistent summer in which he scored 6 50s in 6 Tests saw him not only cement his place in the side but also saw him take over from the exhausted Gooch as captain aged just 25.

Atherton lost his first match in charge but England managed to beat Australia in a morale-boosting final Test and, although the rubber was dead at this point, England had not beaten Australia in the previous 18 Test matches. As a result, he was allowed by the selectors to put his personal imprint on the touring party for his first full tour as captain, to the West Indies in the winter of 1993-94. Neither Gooch nor David Gower were selected. It was not a successful tour as England lost 3-1. The only batsman to play to his full potential was Atherton himself while one of the team's 'bankers', Robin Smith, scored his only runs of the series in the 5th Test. This was a series of extraordinary highs and lows: bowled out for 46 to lose the third Test (and with it the series), England roared back at Bridgetown to win the 4th Test after two centuries from Alec Stewart. The drawn 5th Test was made famous by Brian Lara's then-world record score of 375 not out.

He followed this with two centuries in the first two Tests of the following summer's series against New Zealand. His reputation suffered a blow, however, when he was implicated for ball-tampering during the first Test against South Africa at Lords, for which he was fined £2000 by Ray Illingworth. Atherton's main offence was to lie to Peter Burge, the match referee. Atherton claimed in his autobiography that he answered 'no' when asked if he had anything in his pockets because he had thought Burge was referring to nefarious substances (resin, lipsalve etc). Nevertheless, the TV pictures were damning which showed Atherton very deliberately putting dirt, taken from the pitch, on the ball. In itself Atherton was not breaking the rules - he pointed out himself that plenty of bowlers improve their grip on the ball by rubbing their hands on the pitch - but he was certainly stretching the spirit of the game.

In the end, Ray Illingworth fined Atherton as a pre-emptive strike to try and draw the sting from the situation especially as the reason given for fining him was misinforming the match referee. The result was a media firestorm, lead by Jonathan Agnew at the BBC, as Atherton was very nearly hounded from office. It was this firestorm that lead public opinion to change in his favour. Whilst it was generally agreed that Atherton had been foolish, most recognised that he was very young and that any tampering that was carried out made no difference to the condition of the ball (he had not been reported by the umpires after all) nor to the outcome of the match which was a severe thrashing by South Africa. Eventually attention returned to the cricket and Atherton and England headed to Headingley for the 2nd Test (of 3). On a grey Yorkshire day and on a difficult, seaming wicket, Atherton played one of his greatest innings as he ground out 99 before being caught and bowled by Brian McMillan. It was the perfect riposte to all his critics and although he spoilt the effect by saying that his innings was the best answer he could have given to the 'gutter press', his position as England captain was assured.

Having squared the South Africa series with a coruscating win at the Oval, Atherton took England to Australia. However, he did not take the team he wanted. The controversies during the 1994 summer had undermined his position within the England set-up. Chairman of Selectors Ray Illingworth gave Atherton little input into the squad for Australia. Illingworth had won the Ashes with pace and obdurate batting in 1970-71 and was under the impression that, 25 years later, the same would suffice. Martin McCague, an Australian born in Northern Ireland was selected ahead of Angus Fraser - an extraordinary choice - while England were crippled in the field with the selection of the ageing and rotund Mike Gatting and Gooch, neither of whom contributed much during the tour (NB Gooch was notably unlucky with poor decision after poor decision against him in the Test matches. Gatting, on the other hand, was simply past his best, although he did score 203 not out against Queensland in a tour match and made a century in the test series). The result was a predictable 3-1 rout as England had few answers to the brilliance of Shane Warne et al.

The next two years followed a similar pattern. Some success against the lower rated sides - India, New Zealand, Zimbabwe - but struggles against Australia and Pakistan. Atherton took the brunt of the pressure as the England team's only real world-class player and by the time England had subsided 3-2 to Australia at home in 1997 Atherton was ready to give up. However, an unlikely victory in the 6th Test at the Oval where Phil Tufnell took 11 wickets persuaded Atherton to carry on for one more tour to the West Indies. England lost 3-1 which did not reflect the closeness of the series nor the fact that the scoreline could have very easily been the opposite. Atherton resigned after five long years as captain in which little real progress was made. His main achievement as captain was, like Nasser Hussain, to give the team some backbone and some spirit. In reality, though, he had never had the match-winning bowlers that every captain needs to win series consistently. It is no surprise that when Alec Stewart's England beat South Africa in a 5-Test series in 1998, he had Darren Gough at the peak of his powers in the side for the whole summer.

Atherton continued to play Test cricket for a further 4 years and retired at the end of the 2001 Ashes. Dogged by his chronic back condition, his batting never again reached the heights that it had done when he was consistently one of the best batsman in the world in the mid 1990s. Too frequently he was dismissed very early on in his innings. While Atherton's average may seem low, his opponents were always out of the very top drawer.

Despite this fade at the end of his career, Atherton will always be remembered by fans and bowlers alike as one of the hardest and mentally toughest batsmen of the 90s, in an often spineless team. His finest hours were always "against the wall", like his monumental 185* in 643 minutes against South Africa, and the onslaught from Allan Donald in 1998. It was this grittiness that led to his nickname of "Cockroach" (in that he always comes back) by another member of the gritty club, Stephen Waugh.

He has the dubious honour of having the lowest batting average of any player to have scored 6000 or more runs in Test cricket.

Since his retirement from the game, Atherton has become a highly respected journalist for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper and more prominently as a commentator on English Test cricket. Between the years of 2002 and 2005, he was a member of the commentary team for the coverage of cricket produced by Channel 4 in England and he has also commentated for BBC Radio and Talksport on Test matches outside England. Following the loss of live Test cricket to Sky Sports, Atherton was signed up by the channel to join their team.

[edit] External link

• Player Profile: Mike Atherton from Cricinfo

Preceded by: Graham Gooch

English national cricket captain 1993 - 1998

Succeeded by: Alec Stewart

Persondata
NAME	Atherton, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Atherton, Michael Andrew
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Cricketer
DATE OF BIRTH	23 March 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH	Failsworth, Oldham, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH