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 bowing off spin. Biography He went to Cumnor House School in Purley from the age of five to thirteen before moving to Trinity School in Croydon. He first played for his school's U-11 side at the age of seven. He was also picked up by the Surrey U-11 side and also was selected in Surrey's U-19 team. In July 1991, Mark Butcher and his father Alan Butcher became the first father-son pair ever to play against each other in first-class cricket. He married Alec Stewart's sister Judy but unfortunately the marriage did not last. He dealt with various personal issues especially in 2000 following his break up with wife and axe from England side at the end of 2000. He also had his issues with alcohol and depression. Cricket career Butcher played all his county cricket for Surrey, for whom he made his first-class debut in 1992. He made his Test match debut in the first Test of the 1997 Ashes series at Edgbaston. He opened the batting on his debut test but didn't produce the kind of scores that he would have liked but England managed to win that match by nine wickets albeit of a double century from Nasser Hussain. His last Test match was in December 2004, when he had played 71 Tests, making eight centuries and averaging over 34. Butcher captained England once, in a draw with New Zealand in 1999 when Nasser Hussain was injured. 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. 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. Butcher enjoyed a reasonably good start to his Test career, hitting two half-centuries in five matches against a powerful Australian side. He then struggled (along with the rest of the England side) against the West Indies that winter, averaging just 15. However, in the next