Mark Nicholas
Encyclopedia
Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is a 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 by John Harvey
.
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 can 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 colourful characters to captain Hampshire County Cricket Club
, including Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie
and CB Fry.
, and 1999-2005 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 1996/7, 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 1998/99 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 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.)
Up 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 ever stand in for Richard and Judy
. Nicholas also presented the 2nd 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–present, the program being named "Cricket on Five". He commentates on the program with former cricketer and Channel 4 cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott
and former Channel 4 cricket analyst Simon Hughes, plus ex-England Captain Michael Vaughan. They are normally joined by a guest commentator from the touring country.
Nicholas recently served as anchorman and commentator for the Nine Network
coverage of the 2010/2011 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 and Sri Lanka.
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 sixth year as main presenter and commentator of "Cricket on Five".
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement.
Nicholas was born in Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His grandfather Fred Nicholas
Fred Nicholas
Frederick William Herbert Nicholas was an English first class cricketer who played for Essex County Cricket Club in a first-class career that spanned from 1912 to 1929.Nicholas was born in Federated Malay States...
captained Essex CCC, his mother is the actress Anne Nicholas and his stepfather the broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
Brian Widlake
Brian Widlake
Brian Widlake is a British journalist, broadcaster and presenter best known for co-presenting the BBC's Money Programme in the early 1980s with Valerie Singleton. He worked as a reporter for ITN in the 1960s and was a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4's news magazine programmes The World at One and...
. He was educated at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
where he was coached by John Harvey
John Harvey (cricketer)
John Frank Harvey was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for MCC from 1961 to 1967 and for Derbyshire from 1963 to 1972....
.
Playing career
A middle-order batsman and occasional medium-pace bowler, Nicholas captained Hampshire to four major trophies - the Benson & Hedges CupBenson & Hedges Cup
The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals....
in 1988 and 1992, Sunday League
National League (cricket)
The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect the fact that large numbers of matches were played on days other than Sunday.-Sunday League:The...
(now Pro40) in 1986, and NatWest Trophy
C&G Trophy
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties compete each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland...
(now Friends Provident 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 never to play a Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
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
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, including Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie
Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie
Alexander Colin David Ingleby-Mackenzie OBE was an English cricketer: a left-handed batsman who played for Hampshire between 1951 and 1966, captaining the county from 1958 to 1965 as Hampshire's last amateur captain and leading his side to their first County Championship in the 1961 season...
and CB Fry.
Broadcasting career
Since his retirement as a player, he has worked in broadcasting, first as a commentator for Sky SportsSky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
, and 1999-2005 as the anchorman for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
'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 1996/7, 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 1998/99 Ashes Series in Australia.
He also commentates for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
during the Australian summer cricket season. He now anchors the Nine coverage, being a future anticipated replacement for Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
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.)
Up until 2008 he wrote a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
. 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
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a married couple who are both British television presenters and columnists. Since their marriage, their television appearances have been largely made as a couple. They are best known for presenting This Morning and...
. Nicholas also presented the 2nd 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
2006 Commonwealth Games
The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.The site...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. 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?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Australian game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was an Australian television game show which would offer a maximum cash prize of $1,000,000 for answering 15 successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty as a team...
.
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–present, the program being named "Cricket on Five". He commentates on the program with former cricketer and Channel 4 cricket commentator Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott OBE is a former Yorkshire and England cricketer. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's most successful opening batsmen...
and former Channel 4 cricket analyst Simon Hughes, plus ex-England Captain Michael Vaughan. They are normally joined by a guest commentator from the touring country.
Nicholas recently served as anchorman and commentator for the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
coverage of the 2010/2011 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
Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
in the West Indies, and the 2011 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
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
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
's Britain's Best Dish
Britain's Best Dish
Britain's Best Dish is a British daytime cookery show on ITV hosted by Mary Nightingale. Amateur cooks from around the UK compete to cook "Britain's Best Dish" and a prize of £10,000. The judges are Ed Baines, John Burton Race and Jilly Goolden...
in 2007 and fronted it for four series until in 2010, he was replaced by Mary Nightingale
Mary Nightingale
Mary Nightingale is an English newsreader and television presenter. She is a newsreader for ITN on ITV News, and presents the cookery series Britain's Best Dish on ITV1.-Education:...
. He is currently into his sixth year as main presenter and commentator of "Cricket on Five".