Butcher denies retirement plans from international cricket

Mark Butcher insists he has no immediate plans to retire from international cricket, after Surrey appointed him their captain for 2005. Butcher, 32, will supplant Jonathan Batty, who has been replaced after one season in charge.

Mark Ramprakash will stand in as captain when Butcher, who is currently centrally contracted to the ECB, is unavailable through England commitments.

The appointment of a centrally contracted player as captain runs counter to the recent trend of counties preferring non-contracted players to lead them, as they are likely to be available more often for their team in a season.

Butcher was sidelined by a series of injuries in 2004 but in the previous year he managed to play only six of Surrey's 16 County Championship matches.

But Butcher, who has played for Surrey for 13 years and captained his county 22 times during this period, said: "I have no immediate plans to leave international cricket, that's for sure. I still have a lot of ambitions and targets. Being part of this winning England side for some time to come is the core to me.

He added, "Surrey has been part of my life ever since I can remember and being awarded the captaincy is a huge honour."

Batty was less enthusiastic as his tenure came to a close. "I am naturally disappointed not to be Surrey captain next year," he said. "I hope that there might be another opportunity to captain the club in the future."

The Surrey manager, Steve Rixon, said: "It's been a difficult decision to change the captaincy and I couldn't be more impressed by Jon Batty's whole approach this season.

"But we had to look at the bigger picture and in Mark Butcher we have someone who is a good decision-maker, a deep thinker and commands huge respect from his team.