MARK BUTCHER, the Frank Spencer of cricket, has been like an accident waiting to happen for the best part of 12 months now but England were not expecting his latest mishap to overtake them when they were on the team bus on the way to play South Africa in the third Test match at Newlands yesterday.

Butcher had been sent to the ground early to check on his fitness after complaining of a twinge in his left wrist while batting in the second Test at Durban and subsequently practising in the nets, but England were still taken by surprise when they had a phone call saying that he could not play.

Robert Key, who scored 221 at Lord’s and 93 not out at Old Trafford when he replaced Butcher during his bizarre sequence of injuries last summer, was immediately told he was in the side and, if he takes his opportunity as well as he did the last time, Butcher’s Test career could be over at the age of 32.

It would be a sad way to go for a batsman who has scored 4,288 runs, including eight centuries, at an average of 34.58 since making his Test debut against Australia in 1997 but England’s patience seemed to be wearing thin as Duncan Fletcher, the coach, presented the latest accident report.

“All that happened was that he felt a slight twinge batting in Durban and the same thing in the nets yesterday,” Fletcher said. “After the nets, he just turned round and said, ‘I don’t know if this is a little worse than it was in Durban.’

“We weren’t concerned about it but this morning we sent him to the ground to have a check so we didn’t leave it too late. He saw a doctor yesterday but it was no worse than it had been before and then this morning for some unknown reason he said ‘no’. He was going to see another doctor and we suddenly realised that he couldn’t play and had to say to Robert Key, ‘Are you ready to play?’ We had told him to have a knock yesterday just in case. It would have been stupid not to.

“We can’t tell how much pain Butch is in. He’s the only one who can tell us. When we got on the bus this morning we thought he was playing and then the call came through and it all changed.”

Butcher sounded in enough pain, either from his wrist or from the realisation that his Test place is now in jeopardy, as he recounted his version of events. “I was doing weights back in Johannesburg pretty well as soon as I arrived in South Africa and the wrist has just got steadily worse,” he said. “It had been strapped up for both innings in Durban and I realised in practice on New Year’s Day that it was not right. Then we spent most of the day at the hospital having scans and injections put into it. They say it’s a cartilage problem and there’s some fluid in there. It is going to take a couple of days before we find out if the cartilage treatment is working.”

Whether it works or not, he may now have suffered one injury too many for the selectors’ liking. Despite Key’s form, both last summer and at the start of this tour, they have kept faith with Butcher because of his consistent performances over the past three years. Fletcher said: “Butch missed out because of injury not because of a lack of form and we have to give credit to that.”

Now, however, his form is in question as well. He scored 79 in the first Test in Port Elizabeth but got himself out pulling and his past three innings have been 0, 5 and 13. Nor is it just Key who is challenging for Butcher’s place. Ian Bell played impressively in the final Test against West Indies at the Oval last summer and Kevin Pietersen, the newly-qualified South African, is waiting for his chance.

All of which Butcher, who cannot even console himself with his guitar because of the pain, has heard before. “I thought I’d got over all this stuff,” he said. “It was good to be back out there playing again and it is particularly disappointing because I was hitting the ball well in practice. All I can do is try not to get too despondent. They say positive thinking speeds recovery.”

NOT SO BUTCH

RUN OF INJURIES

March 2004: Butcher freakishly turns an ankle taking a routine catch from a team-mate while fielding against Jamaica. Recovers to be fit for Test series against West Indies.

July 2004: Pulls thigh muscle in Twenty20 game. Suffers whiplash after car accident going to see physiotherapist about thigh injury. Puts him out of first Test against West Indies after 42 successive Tests for England going back to 2001. Compounds thigh injury lifting a box at home. Misses second and third Tests.

August 2004: Strains calf muscle while jogging and misses fourth Test.

January 2005: Ruled out of third Test against South Africa after injury to left wrist aggravated in nets.