Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer and broadcaster. He played for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement. Nicholas was born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...

, London. A grandson of Fred Nicholas, he was educated at

Bradfield College Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 11–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is not ...

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 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. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

in 1988 and 1992, Sunday League in 1986, and

NatWest 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 competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

in 1991 (although he missed the final of the 1991 tournament through injury,

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...

captaining in his absence). Although he captained an England 'B' tour to Sri Lanka in 1985–86, an England A tour to Zimbabwe in 1989/1990, and an "English Counties XI" tour of Zimbabwe in 1984–85, he was never selected for the England senior team. 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 Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Hamps ...

, including Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie and .

Broadcasting career

Since his retirement as a player, Nicholas has worked in broadcasting, first as a commentator for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

, and from 1999 to 2005 as the anchorman for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

'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 1996/97, 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 commentated for Australia's

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television ne ...

during the Australian summer cricket season until they lost the rights before the 2018/19 season. He anchored the coverage, replacing

Richie Benaud Richard Benaud (; 6 October 1930 – 10 April 2015) was an Australian cricketer who, after his retirement from international cricket in 1964, became a highly regarded commentator on the game. Benaud was a Test cricket all-rounder, blending ...

as the face of cricket on Nine, despite having previously been dropped from the commentary team. Until 2008 he wrote a weekly column for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. 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 Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 until 200 ...

. Nicholas presented the second series of the English 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 The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006 ( Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm 2006'' or ''Naarm 2006''), was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth held ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

. He 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?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

''. While as Channel 4 anchor for the cricket, Nicholas presented ''Today at the Test'' which covered the highlights of the day's play at the England Test matches or the trophy finals. Nicholas was approached by Channel Five to cover England cricket highlights from 2006, the programme being named '' Cricket on 5''. He was joined on the programme by former cricketer

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

and analyst

Simon Hughes Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a former British politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, an External Adviser to The Open University, and UK Strategic Adviser to Talgo. Hughes was Deputy Leader ...

, both of whom worked with Nicholas at Channel 4, as well as former England captain Michael Vaughan. Nicholas served as anchorman and commentator for the

coverage of the 2013–14 Ashes series and continues to serve this role for other Australian home Test series until they lost the rights in April 2018. He was part of the world feed commentary team for both the

2007 Cricket World Cup The 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was the ninth Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that took place in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007. There were a total of 51 matches played, three fewer than at the ...

in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

, and the 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and

2019 Cricket World Cup The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted between 30 May ...

in England. He presented highlights coverage of 2012 Summer Olympics in London for the Nine Network. Nicholas is the anchorman for

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

'' Cricket 07'' game. He introduces the matches the user is playing, and commentates during the game with

, taking over from Jim Maxwell. In 2002, Nicholas hosted the second series of the United Kingdom edition of ''Survivor''. Nicholas began presenting

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 pu ...

's '' Britain's Best Dish'' in 2007 and fronted it for four series until in 2010; he was replaced by Mary Nightingale. In November 2016, he published the autobiography ''A Beautiful Game: My Love Affair with Cricket''. Nicholas also co-wrote

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Austral ...

's autobiography '' No Spin''. He was also a member of the world feed commentary team for 2020 Indian Premier League. He commentated for Supersport in South Africa covering the South Africa vs India 2021–22 test match series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Mark 1957 births Living people People educated at Bradfield College English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Hampshire cricket captains People from Westminster English cricket commentators British sports broadcasters Australian television presenters Nine's Wide World of Sport Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Test and County Cricket Board XI cricketers English expatriates in Australia