Butcher has a score to settle with Sabina

West Indies tour: Two innings, one run and an injury - Jamaica owes England's No 3, and he's desperate to collect

It is six years since Mark Butcher faced one of the most unplayable balls ever bowled in Test cricket. It was delivered by Courtney Walsh in the 1998 Test here at Sabina Park which was abandoned on the first morning because of a dangerous pitch. Butcher has batted on more than 100 occasions for England since then, but visions of that one ball remain vivid to this day.

"I was aware things weren't normal when I went out to bat," Butcher recalled with a wry smile on his face on Friday. "But mentally I was trying to play things down. I walked out and, in an attempt to get my bearings right after Athers [Michael Atherton] had got out, I had a little look around.

"I remember Courtney just jogging in and looping this ball down at me. I had faced him quite a lot playing for Surrey and scored runs against him, so I thought little of it as it came down. But the ball exploded off the pitch and I just tried to defend my face. It hit the end of my bat handle and lobbed up to Stuart Williams.

"My walk back to the dressing room was greeted by Adam Hollioake pissing himself with laughter, and it was only when I sat down and saw what was happening that I thought, 'Jesus Christ, this is terrible'. It was only then that I realised how bad the pitch was and how lethal that ball from Walsh had been. Up until then I had been trying to kid myself that it was not as bad as it seemed."

So much for first impressions of Jamaica's famous Test arena. The second weren't much better either. In last week's first practice match before the Test series the left-hander flopped with the bat, toeing a long-hop to backward point with only a single to his name, and then sprained ligaments in his left ankle in a freak accident while fielding.

It is the sort of run that would make some players avoid the place for ever more, but Butcher is desperate to prove his fitness and play in his 63rd Test on Thursday. England's medical staff said yesterday that Butcher is making fast improvement and is 50-50 to play. At 31 he has reached the stage where he needs to score heavily if he wants to reach the targets he has recently started setting himself.

Goal-setting is a new concept for him, because he has never been the sort of character who places his personal aims ahead of those of the team. There have been many England players who have benefited from setting themselves personal targets, but Butcher does not have a selfish bone in his body.

It seems, though,that now Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, may be trying to shift Butcher's focus. "In the past I have never really broken my game down that much," Butcher said. "I have always been of the opinion that if I play well everything would look after itself.

"But I had a good chat with Duncan the other day. He asked me how I felt I was batting and I told him I was pretty happy. He agreed, but he also told me that I wasn't scoring as many runs as someone with my ability should and wondered whether I should start setting myself targets for a particular series.

"This was an interesting thing for him to say and it got me thinking. I thought, 'Yes, I have scored six hundreds since I regained my place but I should have scored more'. I have had plenty of opportunities. In the form that I was in last summer I should have scored three or four hundreds against South Africa, but I only scored one. It made me realise that I am at the point in my career where it is time to kick on. I need to cash in on good starts and score the volume of runs a player of my ability should do."

Despite averaging 42.28 for England in the last two-and- half years Butcher is not happy with his overall Test average of 34.5. Even after a prolonged period of success there are many who will question his place in the side after a couple of low scores. He accepts that his career average reflects his achievements, because during his first 27 Test matches he batted like someone who should average 24.

"There were times when I played well," he said, "but I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't have a mental plan or picture of what I was trying to achieve. This is why I said that I wanted to get my Test average up to 40 when I got back in the England side in 2001. To get it up there after the start that I had would be quite some achievement."

Butcher's period out of the international picture coincided with the breakdown of his marriage. The split from Judy - Alec Stewart's sister - was his fault, and there were fears his departure from the England side could be as permanent as that from his wife.

Fortunately, after a period of feeling sorry for himself he knuckled down and with the help of his father, Alan - the former Surrey, Glamorgan and England batsman - spent the winter of 2000-01 reforming his technique.

A clear head and a relaxed stance brought almost instant results. Four months later Butcher won a Test for England against Australia with one of the greatest innings ever seen at Headingley.

To have played in 35 consecutive Test matches is an achievement Butcher is proud of and it is a run he does not want to come to an end, even if the match is at the dreaded Sabina Park. "I am really proud of the fact that I have not missed a Test match for two-and-a-half years," he said. "Obviously you can't do anything about injuries, but it gives me a lot of satisfaction to know my form has dictated that I have played in all these games.

"The West Indies is a fantastic place to play cricket. A lot of my childhood heroes were from here so it would be nice to score Test hundred here from that perspective.

"I feel that I am playing well, but there is always the chance that if you miss a game someone else will come in and do well. If this happens you might not play again for a little while, and that's a prospect that doesn't fill me with a great deal of joy."