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 counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement. On 1 October 2023, he succeeded

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

as president of Marylebone Cricket Club on a one-year term. Nicholas was born in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

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

Bradfield College Bradfield College is a coeducational public school (independent boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18, in the village of Bradfield, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It is noted for its open-air Greek theatre and its trien ...

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 Engla ...

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 T ...

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 Hamp ...

, 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 broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, and from 1999 to 2005 as the anchorman for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

'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 Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and 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 the five main free-to-air television ...

during the Australian summer cricket season until they lost the rights before the 2018/19 season. He anchored the coverage, replacing Richie Benaud 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 British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. He was named Sports Presenter of the Year in 2001 by the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

, as well as being one of only two presenters to stand in for Richard and Judy. 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, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. 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?'' (WWTBAM) 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 licensed by Sony Pictures Televis ...

''. 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, both of whom worked with Nicholas at Channel 4, as well as former England captain

Michael Vaughan Michael Paul Vaughan (born 29 October 1974) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He served as England cricket captain, England captain for the England test team, test team from 2003 to 2008 ...

. Nicholas served as anchorman and commentator for the

coverage of the

2013–14 Ashes series The 2013–14 Ashes (named Commonwealth Bank Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a Test cricket series between England and Australia. The five venues for the series were the Brisbane Cricket Ground, the Adelaide Oval, the WACA Ground, th ...

and continued 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 2 ...

in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

, 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). The tournament was hosted bet ...

in England. He presented highlights coverage of

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

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 imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

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

's '' Britain's Best Dish'' in 2007 and fronted it for four series until in 2010; he was replaced by

Mary Nightingale Mary Nightingale (born 26 May 1963) is an English journalist and television presenter. She has presented the '' ITV Evening News'' since 2001. Education and early career Nightingale was born in Scarborough, the third of four daughters. She mov ...

. In November 2016, he published the

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

''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 1992 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a lower-order right-handed batter for Victoria, Hampshire ...

'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 South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

covering the South Africa vs India 2021–22 test match series. Nicholas will serve a 12-month term as president of the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

from 1 October 2023, having been nominated by his predecessor,

. After serving his term as president, he returned as anchor man and lead commentator for Star Sports (Indian broadcasting feed) for the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholas, Mark 1957 births Living people People educated at Bradfield College English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Hampshire cricket captains Cricketers from the City of Westminster People from Westminster English cricket commentators English sports broadcasters Australian television presenters Nine's Wide World of Sports Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Test and County Cricket Board XI cricketers English expatriates in Australia Presidents of the Marylebone Cricket Club 20th-century English sportsmen