Michael Andrew Atherton is a former captain of England cricket team. Rifgt arm opening batsman after retirement is also active as a journalist and broadcaster. Born on March 23, 1968, in Newton Heath, Manchester, England, Atherton has been part of the team for long time and has led the English team in a record 54 Test matches. The young Mike Atherton had captained the Manchester Grammar School cricket team where his massive and vibrant performances led to selection for the England under-19 team, which he captained aged 16.

He made debut in test cricket for England in the fifth test against Australia at Trent Bridge. He was selected as vice-captain of the 1989-90 in the team tour to Zimbabwe. In the year 1990, he became the opener of English batting order partnering Graham Gooch. He became the captain of the team in the middle of the Ashes tour in 1993. He led England to West Indies in the winter of 1993-94 unsuccessfully. There were criticisms from all sides regarding his leadership skills. But he batted well in the next series against New Zealand and then against South Africa.

Atherton retired from cricket at the end of the 2001 Ashes. The main reason to quit cricket was constant back pain. Atherton is a player with lowest batting average to have scored 6,000 or more runs in Test cricket. Since his retirement, Atherton is busy in the media. He was a journalist for The Sunday Telegraph and succeeded Christopher Martin-Jenkins as The Times cricket correspondent on 1 May 2008. He was also a member of the Channel 4 commentary team for the coverage of Test cricket in England between 2002 to 2004. During this period he also worked as a commentator for BBC Radio and Talksport on Test matches outside England. In 2005, Atherton joined the Sky Sports commentary team.

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The famous English cricketer Graeme Ashley Hick was born on 23 May 1966in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has worn England cap in 65 Tests and 120 Internationals. He was a common face in the county cricket for Worcestershire for his entire English domestic career, a period that went well over twenty years. In 2008, he also held a new record by surpassing Graham Gooch to play most number of matches in all forms of the game combined. He has scored 40,000 first-class runs, but is commonly held to have underachieved in international cricket.

Graeme Hick is a bowler specialised in off-spin and has claimed more than 200 first-class wickets. Hick was granted a benefit season by Worcestershire in

1999, which raised over £345,000. He was also awarded a testimonial in 2006. He bid farewell to county cricket at the end of the 2008 season. Born in a tobacco-farming family in Zimbabwe, he was first more interested in hockey than cricket. He desired to play hockey. Aged just 16, Hick played three minor one-day games for Zimbabwe Colts and Zimbabwe Country Districts against Young Australia in 1982-83. Hick became part of the Zimbabwe cricket team in the 1983 World Cup, the youngest player ever to achieve such a status, but was not selected to play in the tournament. He reached England in 1984, and joined Worcestershire’s Second XI. The impressive performance took him into the England national team. Hick made his first appearances as an England batsman in 1991. He then became a part of the England Test team also.

His inability to replicate in Test cricket on a consistent basis still is a subject of much debate. His mental approach to the game is another issue that is always poked up by the critics. May critics feel that Graeme Hick was the victim of poor man-management. The ODI statistics of this player is considerably better than his equivalent Test figures, and his eventual career average of 37.33 is higher than Gooch, Thorpe and Gower. Despite his difficulties, the cricketing contemporaries have generally showered compliments on him. They treat him as one of the best batsman ever England has produced.

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