Mark Nicholas
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Mark Nicholas (born 29 September 1957 in Westminster, London) was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement.
His grandfather Fred Nicholas captained Essex CCC, his mother is the actress Anne Nicholas and his stepfather the broadcaster Brian Widlake.
[edit] Playing Career
A swashbuckling middle-order batsman, generally making most of his runs against second string bowlers, and occasional medium-pace bowler, Nicholas skippered Hampshire to four major trophies - the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1988 and 1992, Sunday League (now National League) in 1986, and NatWest Trophy (now C&G Trophy) in 1991. Despite captaining England A on tour to Zimbabwe in 1989-1991, Nicholas can be considered one of his generation's better players to never play a Test for England.
Known for his suave appearance and urbane manner, Nicholas is one of a long line of colourful characters to captain Hampshire County Cricket Club, including Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie and CB Fry.
[edit] Broadcasting Career
Since his retirement, he has worked in broadcasting, first as a commentator for Sky Sports, and 1999-2005 as the anchorman for Channel 4's cricket coverage. 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 of 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 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.)
He also writes 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 ever stand-in for Richard and Judy. Nicholas also presented the 2nd series of the UK version of 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 Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Australia.
He served as anchor during the Ashes of 2005 for Channel 4 producing several memorable commentary lines, demonstrating genuine excitement and elation at the events he was describing. The most famous being, 'Oh! Stephen Harmison, with a slower ball, one of the great balls!' after Harmison's slower ball dismissed Michael Clarke at the end of Saturday's play in the Second Test at Edgbaston. Others include, 'Crikey O'Reilly!' after a Kevin Pietersen six, "Beauty, yes! Magnificent cricket from this man." after Andrew Flintoff had Ricky Ponting caught behind, 'Oh, yes! That's that, Andrew Flintoff is very special!' after Flintoff wrapped up Australia's innings, also at the Second Test at Edgbaston. It must be noted however that Nicholas now expresses similar elation at home wickets with his new Australian paymasters. His signature cry is "by heaven!" whenever something remarkable happens during play (usually a six-hit), although this has been scarcely used in the 2006-07 Ashes series.
Mark Nicholas was approached by Five to cover England cricket highlights from 2006-2010. He also commentates with former cricketer and Channel 4 cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott and former Channel 4 cricket analyst Simon Hughes.
Nicholas is currently serving as anchorman and commentator for the Nine Network coverage of the 2006/2007 Ashes, however this is said to be an interim measure only.
