Michael Jonathon Slater (born 21 February 1970) is an Australian former professional cricketer and former television presenter. He played in 74 Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for the Australia national cricket team. Early life Slater was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales and lived in both Wagga and Junee for his childhood. His parents, Peter and Carole and two older siblings had emigrated from the north-eastern coast of England in 1966 to Launceston, Tasmania, Australia where his father taught high school agriculture and science. After three years, the family moved and his father became a teacher in agriculture at Wagga Wagga Agricultural College. Slater's mother left the family in 1983, when he was just 12 years old. He later wrote about tough personal times that followed, claiming that his education standards slipped after his mother left the family and that sport became the "only thing [he] could focus on properly". However, it was later revealed that Slater suffers from manic depression. He has claimed that school bullying accentuated his academic difficulties in Years 9 and 10 and claimed that he once ran home after it was suggested that some bullies "were planning to get [him] after school". Slater wrote: "My family was always involved in sport, so from an early age it just seemed natural for me to play any game that was on offer." When aged 11, Slater was selected in the New South Wales Primary School Sports Association cricket and hockey teams. He also made the state under-12 hockey team in 1981 and went on to be selected in the Under–13, -15 and −17 hockey teams. Slater wrote that, in his early teenage years, he turned towards cricket. Slater joined an inner-western Sydney Under–16 side over a Christmas holiday to further develop his cricketing career. After topping the batting averages in the Under–17s, in the following season, he was chosen as captain of the New South Wales Under—16 team. The carnival was not a success for him but his team performed "well". Slater claimed that he hurt his Achilles tendon in an accident at school when he was seventeen and played a couple of hockey games following the accident but limped off the field and subsequently had surgery in the lead-up to the Under–17 national cricket carnival. Slater claimed he was informed that, because of his injury, his "dream of playing cricket for Australia was