Atherton, Michael (Andrew) 1968- (Mike Atherton)

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ATHERTON, Michael (Andrew) 1968-
(Mike Atherton)

PERSONAL: Born March 23, 1968, in Manchester, Lancashire, England. Education: Attended Cambridge University.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Hodder & Stoughton, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH, England.

CAREER: Professional cricket player. First-class cricket debut with Cambridge University, 1987; debut with Lancashire, 1987; Test debut with England, 1989; served as captain for England, 1993-98; retired from international and first-class cricket, 2001. Works for England's Channel 4 Television as a cricket commentator.

AWARDS, HONORS: Cricket Writer's Young Cricketer of the Year, 1990; Wisden Cricketer of the Year, 1991; Cornhill Player of the Year, 1994; Order of the British Empire (OBE), 1997, for services to cricket.

WRITINGS:

(With Pat Gibson) A Test of Cricket: Know the Game, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1995.

Opening Up: My Autobiography, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 2002.

Also writes for the Sunday Telegraph.

SIDELIGHTS: As England's Test captain for a record fifty-four matches, Michael "Mike" Atherton was a central figure in English cricket throughout the 1990s. Playing at a time when English teams earned little respect at the international level, Atherton stood out as a determined leader and skilled player. He retired from professional cricket in 2001 and proceeded to publish a memoir at age thirty-four. Known and respected for his work writing for the Sunday Telegraph, Atherton completed Opening Up: My Autobiography without a ghost-writer, assistance that he had used for his earlier book, A Test of Cricket: Know the Game. His endeavor was enjoyed by reviewers as an exceptional sports book, one which gives insight into Atherton's experiences and the general state of cricket in England.

Opening Up provides readers with the highs and lows of a remarkable career. Atherton was made England's captain when he was only twenty-five, and held the position from 1993 to 1998. He details some of the most exciting matches he played in, devoting whole chapters to two competitions with South Africa. This extensive treatment is not as extraordinary as it might initially seem to those unfamiliar with cricket, given that international Test matches run five days and last as long as eight or ten hours each day. Atherton's commentary includes his thoughts on an infamous 1995 match with South Africa in which he was accused of ball tampering. He also writes about his struggle with back problems, a hereditary condition that shortened his father's career as a soccer player.

After retiring, Atherton worked on his memoir full time for four months, while staying in the West Indies. According to an account in Bookseller, he used his own diaries rather than news accounts as references, because of his strong desire to write something intensely personal. Although Atherton retired because he wanted a mental rather than physical break from the sport, the project was still a very positive experience. "I haven't tried to settle old scores. I didn't want to leave with a very bitter and cynical account of fifteen years in cricket, because that's not how I felt," he explained.

Upon reading Opening Up, reviewers praised Atherton as a cricket player and a writer, and found strong ties between his style in both occupations. Writing forCricket News, Stephen Lamb credited the author with "showing an above-average intensity" and commented that "the strength of his mental attitude in an England side that was often struggling . . . shines through" in the book. In the Times Literary Supplement, David Horspool commented, "[Atherton] reveals himself in this book to be a man with a hinterland, well-read and often drily witty." Horspool noted that in Atherton's account of the famous matches with South Africa "he shows why he also deserves thanks from all England cricket followers, for briefly, and through sheer force of will, stopping the rot." P. J. Kavanagh remarked in the Spectator that Opening Up was "so obviously written by the man who played the way he did: stubborn, scornful of frills and too intelligent to be dull; a man (a boy) who could stick up for himself." Kavanagh concluded, "Most sporting books are for the bin or Oxfam. This is for the shelves."