Butcher calls it a day

Surrey captain Butcher, who played 71 Test matches between 1997 and 2004, managed five LV County Championship outings this season but after undergoing further surgery a fortnight ago, decided to call time on his 17-year career.

The stylish 36-year-old, who is best remembered for his match-winning 173 not out against Australia at Headingley in 2001, made his first-class bow in 1992 and scored 38 centuries, eight of them for England.

His dashing innings against the Australians - as England chased down 315 to win the match - kickstarted an international career that had hitherto failed to ignite.

Having passed three figures just three times in his first four years as a Test player, Butcher passed the landmark on five occasions between 2002-2003, with hundreds against Sri Lanka, twice, Zimbabwe, South Africa and a second against Australia in Sydney.

Butcher slipped out of the Test reckoning after a series of injury problems blighted his 2005 campaign, during which he was appointed Surrey captain for the first time.

Butcher's time as Brown Caps skipper, which briefly overlapped with father Alan's stint as coach, coincided with a notable downturn in fitness, with persistent problems affecting his ability to reverse the county's ailing fortunes.

Butcher said: "It was a very tough decision to walk away from the club that I have called home since I was a boy and the game that has given me so many great memories but, I feel that it is the right time to move onto the next chapter in my life.

"I look back very fondly on my years at Surrey and am also very proud to have represented my country. I would like to thank all the coaches, players, supporters and administrative staff that have helped me along the way and made the last 20 years incredibly special."

Butcher captained his country in a Test match once in 1999 in the absence of the injured Nasser Hussain, but, curiously, was never selected in a one-day international.