It is quite possible that Mike Atherton would not yet have played Test cricket had Mike Gatting not taken a group of fellow-dissidents to South Africa in the winter of 1989-90. The announcement of a party which included eight players who had taken part in the 1989 series against Australia came during the Old Trafford Test. There were two Tests against Australia to go, and one of the new recruits, for the game at Trent Bridge, was Atherton, then 21-years-old and having just completed his third and final year at Cambridge. His debut was the sort of which nightmares are made – out second ball to the sixth ball of the match. Atherton’s reaction was to respond with: “It bothered other people more than me. I hadn’t suddenly become a bad player with one duck.” He was top scorer in the second innings with 47, scored 12 and 14 in the final Test, and missed out on the tour of West Indies.
Michael Andrew Atherton was born on March 23, 1968, a Mancunian like two of Lancashire’s greatest players, Archie MacLaren and Brian Statham. He learned his cricket with Woodhouses, the Lancashire and Cheshire League club where his father also played. He was at Manchester Grammar School for seven years and his batting blossomed to take him into the Lancashire Schools’, English Public Schools’ and English Schools’ teams. David Moss, his cricket mentor at Manchester Grammar School, recalled seeing Atherton play cricket at the age of nine and hoping he would pass his entrance examination so that the school would also benefit from his batting talent.
Mike Atherton seemed destined for great things from the moment he made his debut. His first summer as a full time professional saw him named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991.
There was talk of protecting him, putting him in cotton wool, and he finished up instead with the gentler pleasures of Zimbabwean bowling. He was disappointed: he did not want to be protected, and hoped he had been omitted on the simple grounds of other players being better. But Zimbabwe helped his development, which continued in England in 1990 when he played in all six Tests and scored 735 runs in eleven innings, with hundreds at Trent Bridge, against New Zealand, and Old Trafford, against India, where he joined Geoff Pullar as the only Lancastrians to score centuries for England on their home ground. This was Atherton’s first season as a full-time professional after three years split between Cambridge and Lancashire, and he responded with a total of 1,924 runs in first-class cricket for an average of 71.25.
However, 1990 was to be the true testing time: a full, demanding season with Lancashire, not just in Championship cricket but in limited-overs cricket, too. He started the Championship season with scores of 50, 191, 93 and 51, the one-day matches with 63, 44, 5, 69 not out and 76 not out, and by the end of May he had scored 856 runs in all competitions. Moreover, that did not include a century denied to him in a washed-out Benson and Hedges Cup game with Hampshire.
The recall to Test cricket was a near formality, although now it was as opener to leave the position of No.3 available for Graeme Hick in 1991. Atherton showed his taste for the game at its highest level with innings of 151, 0, 54, 82 and 70 against New Zealand; 8, 72, 131, 74, 7 and 86 against India; a grand total of 735 runs and an average of 66.81. Not bad for starters.
Mike Atherton went on to become one of England’s great openers, scoring 7,728 runs at 37.69 in 115 matches. He was captain in 54 of those Tests.
This article first appeared in the 1991 Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. You can pre-order this year’s Almanack here.
