Cricket: Butcher waits for his opening

Stephen Brenkley talks to Surrey's young blade, for whom patience is a necessity; As one gifted batsman sets out to build a career with England, another steps out on a new road to recovery

To Be an England player-in- waiting is at once exciting, frustrating and worrying. It is exciting to be widely considered a future international, it is frustrating that the selectors have still to confirm this, it is worrying that the day may yet not arrive.

"I'm quite happy to play it down," said Mark Butcher, who according to all available intelligence, not to mention form, is the man most likely to break into England's batting order this summer. "It's obviously in my mind and if I do well in the first few games then we'll have to see. If I don't get picked it will probably be because I've not played well enough. That or because the batsmen already there are getting runs."

Butcher's cause has been significantly advanced by two factors in the early days of the season. In the match between England A and The Rest at Edgbaston last week, which, if not quite a Test trial was slightly more than an exhibition, he scored 153 in the first innings. It was not vintage stuff in its initial stages but he did what good openers should and hung on when the ball was passing the bat early on. Selectors, particularly when one of them is Graham Gooch, who knows all about swinging new balls, spot these things.

Then there is Nick Knight's finger. Knight is the man in possession as Mike Atherton's opening partner. He has played wonderfully well for England on occasions but has also made odd errors of judgement. He had not quite secured his place when he suffered a broken finger in New Zealand, which required the insertion of six pins. The healing process is slow and when Knight picks up a bat again he needs runs quickly. Butcher, 24, in touch and also left-handed, is the obvious replacement.

"He's the man with the job and if Nick is in form then I'm probably not going to get picked," said Butcher. "It wouldn't matter how many runs I got. I just have to ensure I meet my own targets. As a batsman the most important thing is to have a base. This is about knowing the areas where you have to hit the ball and getting to the point where you don't have to think about it and the bat seems to come down in the right place naturally."

Butcher is a player of equable temperament who has learnt to play himself in with rigid application. The finishing touches to his base were constructed by his father, Alan, the former Surrey opening batsman, who now coaches at Essex. He gave his sons little formal coaching. Mark and his brother Gary learnt the game largely by watching at the Oval from about the age of four. They simply tried to copy what they saw in the middle.

"Then about three years ago my dad pointed something out to me about my balance at the crease. It was only a little thing about putting more weight on the front foot. I did. It worked. The difference in fluency was noticeable straight away and that in turn made a difference to my approach as an opener. That was the base."

Mumbo jumbo to some perhaps but of such apparently trivial adjustments are careers made. It had an effect on Butcher's confidence, and he is now a key member of an equally confident Surrey side, who are among the favourites for all four domestic competitions this summer, though they tried to dispel their billing in the opening Championship match last week.

"There was a period of around a month last summer when I was batting better than at any time in my life," Butcher said. "It was the sort of feeling you want to hold on to. Every time I went in the bat flowed and I just knew it was going to." Between late May and early July, he had 11 first-class innings in which he scored three hundreds and six fifties. If the patch was purple it was not of a hue deep enough to conceal what is perceived to be Butcher's weakness: when set he does not go on to a century often enough. Those hundreds last June were his lot for the summer but there were 13 other scores above 50. Again on England A's tour to Australia in the winter he was the dominant batsman but his seven fifties yielded no hundreds.

"I know what people are saying but sometimes you can do nothing about it. They said about Graham Thorpe that he didn't get enough hundreds but he got two in succession in New Zealand last winter. He's told me that it will come, that you just have to keep believing it will happen."

It happened at Edgbaston last week as he registered his seventh hundred in his 107th first- class innings. If he eventually plays for England he will emulate his father. They would be the ninth father-and-son pair to be capped by England. Alan Butcher played for his country only once. In Mark Butcher's position that probably still seems a faraway figure.