Michael Jonathon Slater is an Australian former professional cricketer and former television presenter. He played in 74 Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for the Australia national cricket team. A combative and wholehearted cricketer, Slater has played many vital innings for New South Wales and as an Australia opener with his adventurous brand of strokeplay.

Slater was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, and lived in both Wagga and Junee for his childhood. When aged 11, Slater was selected in the New South Wales Primary School Sports Association cricket and hockey teams. Slater joined an inner-western Sydney Under-16 side over a Christmas holiday to further develop his cricketing career. After topping the batting averages in the Under-17s, in the following season, he was chosen as captain of the New South Wales Under-16 team. After an injury to the captain, Slater captained the state under-19 team but he and his team under-performed.

The following year, he was vice-captain for the Under-19 carnival in Canberra and scored a century in the opening match. In a victorious final against Victoria, Slater scored another century, becoming one of the leading run-scorers in the series. A specialist right-handed batter as well as a very occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler, Slater represented the New South Wales Blues in Australian domestic cricket and played English county cricket with Derbyshire. His Australian club was the University of NSW Cricket Club, for whom he scored 3873 runs in 77 first-grade innings, with a high score of 213 not out.

Slater played for New South Wales in the 1991/92 Sheffield Shield season. He made quick progress to the Australian side, being selected for the Ashes tour of England in 1993, when he was 23 years of age, narrowly beating Queenslander Matthew Hayden to the opening berth alongside vice/captain Mark Taylor, who also grew up in Wagga Wagga.

In his debut match, he scored a half-century, before compiling his maiden century in the following Test match at Lord's, famously kissing the Australian coat of arms on his helmet to celebrate achieving the milestone. He continued his good form into the subsequent home series against New Zealand in 1993/94, netting 305 runs at an average of 76.25. In the 1994/95 return Ashes series in Australia, Slater was the leading run-scorer in the series with 623. The following season saw him notch his first double-century, against Sri Lanka at the WACA in Perth.

Slater's match-winning 123 against England at Sydney in the 1998/99 Ashes series comprised 66.84 per cent of his team's entire total. This remains the greatest proportion since Charles Bannerman made 165 not out (67.34 per cent) in the very first Test innings of all, in 1877. Slater was dropped from the Australian Test side in late 1996 after some poor form. It took him two years to get back into the national team and things went well for a couple of years, although this period coincided with a split from his first wife and accusations of drug-taking by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB).

Aside from the period between October 1996 and March 1998, Slater occupied a position at the top of the Australian Test batting line-up for close to a decade. Amid a golden run of success for the team as a whole, individual highlights have included his 219 against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995-96; and his brilliant home series against New Zealand in 1993-94 (which netted him 305 runs at 76.25) and England (623 runs at 62.30) in 1994/95. Ironically, Slater's aggressive approach didn't translated to similar results in one-day cricket. He produced a spectacular 73 on his one-day international debut but did not reach such heights again and did not played in an international limited-overs match after 1997.

When Michael scored his eleventh Test century at the Sydney Cricket Ground, he charged off in the direction of the pavilion waving his bat above his head, and leaping in the air before planting a kiss on the Australian coat of arms. This Test century was a controversial innings from an umpiring point of view. The decisions of umpire Taufel were a factor prompting officials to install cameras in line with the batting crease on both sides of the ground, and at both ends of the pitch.

His Ashes tour to England in 2001 was his last international series. He started off with a quick-fire 77 in his first innings of the series, including four boundaries off the first four balls he faced from Darren Gough. However, as the series went on, Slater’s form started to decline dramatically, ultimately leading to Justin Langer replacing him as opening batter. It was subsequently reported that Slater felt animosity towards Langer over this decision and became reclusive. It was later revealed that he suffered from manic depression (bipolar disorder). Unable to rebuild a career in limited-overs cricket, his prolonged form slump forced him out of professional cricket after 74 Test matches.

After commentating for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom during the 2005 Ashes series, Slater joined Nine's Wide World of Sports cricket commentary team in January 2006. In 2018, he joined the Seven Network to commentate its coverage of the Test Cricket and Big Bash League. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Slater travelled to India to commentate on Indian Premier League cricket during a continued uncontrolled outbreak of the virus in India. Slater was subsequently axed by the Seven Network, which chose to not renew his contract, citing "budget restraints."

Since his retirement from cricket and the end of his media work, Slater has faced many legal issues, including multiple arrests, charges and imprisonment. Slater’s fall from grace sent shockwaves through his hometown of Wagga Wagga, which is grappling with how to appropriately celebrate the significant achievements of a sporting icon who has since tarnished its reputation. The honour for the former Test batter was unveiled in 2014. The oval is part of the city's Bolton Park sporting complex.