Mark Nicholas

This article is about English cricketer. For American Detroit-based electronic musician Mark Nicholas working under music project Cosmicity, see Cosmicity.

Mark Nicholas

Personal information
Full name	Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas
Born	(1957-09-29) 29 September 1957 Westminster, London, England
Nickname	Smashing, Elvis, Jardine
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right arm medium
Role	County captain, now Sportscaster
Relations	FWH Nicholas (grandfather)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1978–1995	Hampshire
Career statistics
Competition First-class List A Matches 377 359 Runs scored 18,262 7,334 Batting average 34.39 27.78 100s/50s 36/81 1/40 Top score 206* 108 Balls bowled 5,855 3,878 Wickets 72 101 Bowling average 45.06 32.38 5 wickets in innings 2 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a Best bowling 6/37 4/30 Catches/stumpings 215/– 113/–
Source: CricketArchive, 7 January 2009

Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former player. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement.

Nicholas was born in Westminster, London. His grandfather Fred Nicholas captained Essex CCC, his mother is the actress Anne Nicholas and his stepfather the broadcaster Brian Widlake. He was educated at Bradfield College where he was coached in cricket by John Harvey.

Playing career

A middle-order batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler, Nicholas captained Hampshire to four major trophies – the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1988 and 1992, Sunday League (now Pro40) in 1986, and NatWest Trophy (now Friends Provident Trophy) in 1991. Despite captaining England A on tour to Zimbabwe in 1989–1991, Nicholas might be considered one of his generation's better players never to play a Test for England.

Known for his suave appearance and urbane manner, Nicholas is one of a long line of colourfully dressed characters to captain Hampshire County Cricket Club, including Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie and C. B. Fry.

Broadcasting career

Since his retirement as a player, Nicholas has worked in broadcasting, first as a commentator for Sky Sports, and from 1999 to 2005 as the anchorman for Channel 4's cricket coverage. He worked freelance in 1995 for Sky and others, before signing for Sky Sports in 1996 as anchorman, where his first major role was presenting domestic and international cricket.

He led Sky's coverage of England's winter tours to Zimbabwe and New Zealand in 1996–1997, and continued this in the West Indies in 1998. His last role with Sky Sports was presenting the network's live and exclusive coverage of the 1998–1999 Ashes series in Australia.

He also commentates for Australia's Nine Network during the Australian summer cricket season. He now anchors the Nine coverage, being a future anticipated replacement for Richie Benaud as the face of cricket on Nine, despite having once been dropped from the commentary team for reasons that were never fully explained before his reinstatement. His rise to the top of sports broadcasting – in Australia at least – is quite remarkable considering that he never played at international level during his cricketing career. Every other senior member of Nine's on-air team has played at the elite level, many of them captaining Australia.

Until 2008 he wrote a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph. He was named Sports Presenter of the Year in 2001 by the Royal Television Society, as well as being one of only two presenters to stand in for Richard and Judy. Nicholas also presented the second series of the UK version of the reality show Survivor. He continued his commitments to Australia's Nine Network in March 2006, anchoring the afternoon coverage of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He also rated fourth in a Melbourne newspaper poll that set out to find the public's choice on the new host of the Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

While as Channel 4 anchor for the cricket, Nicholas presented "Today at the Test" which would cover the highlights of the day's play at the England Test matches or the trophy finals.

Mark Nicholas was approached by Five to cover England cricket highlights from 2006, the programme being named Cricket on Five. He commentates on the programme with former cricketer Geoffrey Boycott and analyst Simon Hughes, both of whom worked with Nicholas at Channel 4 plus ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.

Nicholas served as anchorman and commentator for the Nine Network coverage of the 2013–2014 Ashes series and continues to serve this role for other Australian home Test series. He was part of the world feed commentary team for both the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies, and the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. He presented Highlights coverage of 2012 Summer Olympics in London for the Nine Network.

Nicholas is also the anchorman for EA Sports Cricket 07 game. He introduces the matches the user is playing, and also commentates during the game with Richie Benaud, taking over from Jim Maxwell.

Nicholas began presenting ITV1's Britain's Best Dish in 2007 and fronted it for four series until in 2010, he was replaced by Mary Nightingale. He is currently into his eighth year as main presenter and commentator of Cricket on Five.

Controversy

Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain, described commentator Mark Nicholas' pre-tournament characterisation of his team as "short of brains" as an emotional flashpoint for his side during the World T20. Nicholas had made the comment in a column for ESPNcricinfo on March 3, writing: "West Indies are short of brains but have IPL history in their ranks."

On the eve of the final against England, Sammy said that comment and many other depictions of his team as mercenary cricketers have rankled, especially because West Indies have been a leading T20 international side for several years. They won the 2012 World T20, and progressed to the semi-final of the 2014 tournament in Bangladesh, where they lost to eventual champions Sri Lanka.

"How could you describe people with no brains? Even animals have brains," Sammy said in Kolkata. "We're not an object, and for me, that comment really set us off. You have seen me talking about it. It's really emotional, for somebody who I respect and have a good rapport with generally, to describe our team - who two years ago were world champions - as guys with no brains. That's really out of order.

"This passion, these emotions, this anger - what these people have been saying - this has always been there from the inception of the tournament. God don't love the ugly, and we are very wonderful and beautifully made. That's why we play exciting cricket. So for us, all these things that happened before the tournament - that is the passion, the determination that we take on the field. Its just one more step to lifting that cup and we believe we can do it."

Notwithstanding the loss to Afghanistan after semi-final qualification had already been assured, West Indies have had an impressive run in this World T20. They comfortably defeated England, Sri Lanka and South Africa, and ran down India's 192 for 2 with two balls to spare, in the semi final. Sammy suggested that closing ranks and engaging a sort of siege mentality aided his side's performance.

"It's been a tough journey," he said. "A lot happened before the tournament, and I believe that everything always happens for a reason. I think the pre-tournament shenanigans brought us really closer together as a team. I don't know if you have heard the coach say it. The players have said it - it feels like it's us against everybody else. It's a format we've been consistent in, but every year nobody gives us a chance. All these things brought this team together. I think the fact that a few of us are getting old now, and we are aware that it could be the last for a few key players, has also brought us closer. We've formed our own little circle."

West Indies chase of India's score was notable for the number of boundaries hit. Of their eventual 196, 146 came from 20 fours and 11 sixes. Through the course of the Super 10s, they have scored 61.08% of their runs in boundaries.

"People say we don't rotate our strike well - we will talk about that," Sammy said. "But first thing is you have to stop us from hitting boundaries. That has been difficult for oppositions once we get in that swing.

"I think since the inception of T20, you've seen West Indies is a boundary-hitting team so that's no surprise for me. We know the power we have in the dressing room so it was exciting to watch. Lendl Simmons, Andre Russell and Johnson Charles displayed that type of batting - boundary hitting - against India."

Having already beaten England in their opening match, West Indies perhaps go into the final as the more fancied outfit. However, Sammy said England had improved with each outing since then, and suggested that his team might even be underdogs at Eden Gardens.

"We're always David [of David and Goliath]. David is a winner. Look, even now I still don't think people give us a chance," he said. "Goliath was big and strong but David defeated him with a sling and one shot. We always see ourselves as David. We will play like David, be smart about it, believe in ourselves and in each other.

References

• Mark Nicholas interviews Michael Vaughan on Michael Vaughan's Video Masterclass
• Cricinfo page on Mark Nicholas
• Channel 4 page on Mark Nicholas
• Mark Nicholas profile on the Cricket on Five website
• On being dropped from the Nine team
• [1]

Sporting positions
Preceded by Nick Pocock	Hampshire cricket captain 1985–1995	Succeeded by John Stephenson

Awards
Preceded by Jim Rosenthal	RTS Television Sport Awards Best Sports Presenter 2000	Succeeded by Sue Barker
Preceded by Gary Lineker	RTS Television Sport Awards Best Sports Presenter 2005	Succeeded by Hazel Irvine