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At Lord’s, in the second Test match, Butcher put down two catches and was punished with body language from the victim, Darren Gough, which would not have gone amiss on a pantomime stage Yesterday Butcher was utterly beyond reproach. He gave us great theatre and the beautiful drama of a man realising all his strength and all his talent.Excessive celebration of victory in a dead rubber is naturally avoided by all serious sporting nations, and English cricket will do well to eschew such seriously flawed triumphalism. But nor should it stint its admiration for Butcher, the man who fought his way to a perfect expression of talent which, for one reason or another, less two months ago seemed destined to fade into obscurity. His chance came when Graham Thorpe was injured – and let Butcher into the Surrey one-day side. From that unpromising ground, the hero of Headingley saved his career And, who knows, the battered spirit of English cricket..

Mark Butcher took his batting on to another level to play one of the great innings in Ashes history at Headingley yesterday. That was the combined assessment of his captain Nasser Hussain, Australia’s stand-in leader Adam Gilchrist, and of the batsman himself. Mark Butcher took his batting on to another level to play one of the great innings in Ashes history at Headingley yesterday. That was the combined assessment of his captain Nasser Hussain, Australia’s stand-in leader Adam Gilchrist, and of the batsman himself.
“You have periods of batting where you can’t do anything wrong and you’re not thinking about your technique,” Butcher said, reflecting on his unbeaten 173. “You’re just watching the ball and playing it and any batsman will tell you that when you get into that sort of mode that’s the most perfect way for batting.”It’s fantastic to have gone from nowhere to being in the limelight again, I’m going to enjoy it, keep my feet on the ground and try and have a good game at The Oval.”His captain Hussain said: “I have seen him play as well as that but get only 20s and 30s. He has always looked an accomplished player and Duncan [Fletcher, the England coach] and I have been left scratching our heads as to why he has got out, but today he took his game on to another level in a phenomenal innings.”Gilchrist said: “That has to be one of the greatest Ashes Test innings of all time.

You have to say that, especially given that he was not meant to be playing in the Test series at the start.”The reaction of the Australian team when Butcher reached his century spoke volumes over how highly they rated his batting. “I have never seen so many of our guys going up to congratulate someone at once,” Gilchrist said.. Those who witnessed the often replayed miracle of Headingley ‘81 came in little waves as news, in a pre-mobile age, seeped through Leeds that over at the cricket something extraordinary was happening. The ground was far from full when Bob Willis knocked back Ray Bright’s middle stump.

Those who witnessed the often replayed miracle of Headingley ‘81 came in little waves as news, in a pre-mobile age, seeped through Leeds that over at the cricket something extraordinary was happening. The ground was far from full when Bob Willis knocked back Ray Bright’s middle stump.
Yesterday they flooded in early not in expectation of an England victory but in the hope of seeing some decent resistance and perhaps the last chance to glimpse a very great Australian side. I drove over because it would be the final opportunity to see Mike Atherton bat – but he was dismissed just as I passed the signs for Morley. On the radio Jeff Thomson said he could see surprisingly few blue seats in the new West Stand and in the afternoon there was scarcely any vantage point to be had.The West Stand has replaced the old Western Terrace, the most notorious bank of seating in English sport, famed for the drunken boorishness and frankly open racism of its inhabitants. There was surprisingly little beer about, but plenty of passion on display from a hitherto maligned audience.We sat beneath banners advertising the England Cricket Board’s latest marketing gimmick, a series of cartoon lions called Maxie, Little M and Widget known as the Pride.