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English
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England
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ENG
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Ian Botham
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Cricket no picpng
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Right-handed batsman (RHB)
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Right-arm Fast Medium (RFM)
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102
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5200
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3334
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14/22
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208
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35493
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383
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2840
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27
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4
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8/34
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120/0
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116
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2113
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2321
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0/9
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79
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10321
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145
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2854
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0
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4/31
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36/0
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5 January
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2005
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OBE , (born
November 24 ,
1955 in
Heswall ,
Cheshire ) (
Nickname d "Beefy") was one of
England 's best-ever
Cricket ers and one of the best
All-round cricketers of all time. In a
Test career spanning 15 years from
1977 , he scored 5,200 runs at 33.54, and took 383
Wicket s at an average of 28.40. Similarly successful at
One-day Cricket , he was a
Wisden cricketer of the year in
1978 .
Whilst his averages suggest he was an average
Batsman and
Bowler , they belie his reputation as one of the greatest match winners of the game. He tended to play to extremes, so if Botham played well, he often seemed to win the match on his own.
He was renowned as a big-hitting batsman but with a surprisingly classical technique, and as a fast-medium paced
Swing Bowler . In his later career after a back injury, his pace diminished to no more than a gentle medium, but he seemed to retain the knack of taking wickets regardless. He was and remains a truly larger than life character and who was one of the most popular sportsmen ever to wear an England shirt in any sport.
A talented footballer as well as cricketer, Botham had to choose very early in his career whether to play professional
Football or cricket. Later on, to get fit after an injury, he played for
Scunthorpe United .
Botham started his
First-class career with
Somerset in
1974 . He left Somerset in
1985 as a protest against the sacking of his friends
Viv Richards and
Joel Garner , and played for
Worcestershire between 1986 and
1991 . In
1992 , he joined
County Championship newcomers
Durham before retiring midway through the 1993 season, poignantly after Durham's match against the touring Australians. He also played for
Queensland although his time there was tarnished by incidents in an aircraft, which also involved
Allan Border and a passenger.
He made his Test debut for
England on
28 July 1977 in the Third Test against
Australia . He played 102 Tests, and was England
Captain for 12
Tests in
1980 and
1981 . However, he was unsuccessful in that role, with 8 draws and 4 losses although in his defence, 9 of his matches as captain were against the best team of the time, the
West Indies .
His career coincided with the careers of several other great all-rounders, including
Richard Hadlee ,
Imran Khan , and
Kapil Dev . As a result, the 1980s is considered to be a golden era for the all-rounder. Botham's best world rankings were first and third in bowling and batting respectively.
Ian Botham holds a number of Test records as an all-rounder, including being the fastest (in terms of matches) to achieve the "doubles" of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, 2,000 runs and 200 wickets, and 3,000 runs and 300 wickets.
He was the first player to score 5,000 runs and take 300 Test wickets, and the first to score a century and take 10 wickets in the same Test match. He scored a century and took 5 wickets in an
Innings in the same Test match on 5 occasions; no-one else has managed this feat more than twice.
When he retired, he held the world record for the greatest number of Test wickets, although his tally has subsequently been passed by several players.
During the
1981 Ashes (see below), Ian set a record of six sixes in a single Ashes Test Match at
Old Trafford . That record remained unbroken until the 7th August
2005 when
Andrew Flintoff scored five in the first innings and four in the second innings of the second Test at
Edgbaston against Australia, and again until the 12th September
2005 , when
Kevin Pietersen hit seven sixes in the second innings of the last Test at
The Brit Oval , again against Australia.
People also joke about his age when he became
50 , claiming that because of his batting skill and natural love for the game of
Cricket , it was his slowest half-century that he's ever made.
In 1980, Botham was the pre-eminent all-rounder in world cricket and was appointed captain of the England team. However, his captaincy was not a happy one; he lost form and the team did not do well (see above). There was also an incident in the 1980 centenary Test against Australia at Lord's where several frustrated Lord's pavilion members threw punches at him, after what they saw as his alliance with the umpires to unnecessarily delay play on a dry, sunny, Saturday (it had rained heavily the previous night). He resigned the captaincy after a loss and a draw in the first two Tests of the
1981 Ashes Series ; he was dismissed for a "pair" in the Second Test at
Lord's . He returned to an embarrassed silence in the pavilion and after the previous year's events at the centenary Test, this possibly was the final straw. For the rest of his cricketing career, Botham always refused to acknowledge the pavilion members when he played at Lord's. The Australian team was rated as second only to the great West Indies team of the time containing a formidable pace attack in the form of
Dennis Lillee ,
Geoff Lawson and
Terry Alderman .
Mike Brearley , the captain Botham had replaced, took over the reins for the Third Test scheduled for
16 to
21 July , at
Headingley . Australia won the toss and elected to bat. They batted all day Thursday and most of Friday, declaring after tea at 401 for 9,
John Dyson having made 102 and Botham having taken 6 for 95. The England openers
Graham Gooch and
Geoff Boycott survived the remaining few overs, and England finished the day on 7 for no wicket.
The next day, Saturday, was a disaster for England: Gooch was out in the first over of the day, and although Boycott and Brearley then attempted to dig in, they were both out before lunch. None of the other batsmen got going at all with the exception of Botham who top scored with 50 — his first half century since his first Test as captain 13 matches earlier. England were all out in the third session for 174. Australia enforced the follow on and piled on the pressure, Gooch was out for 0 on the third ball of the first over caught by Terry Alderman off the bowling of Dennis Lillee. By the close, England had struggled to just 6 for 1, still 221 behind Australia.
Sunday
19 July was a rest day and the papers roasted the lamentable England team. Morale was not improved by the news that
Ladbrokes were offering 500-1 against England winning the match. (Controversially, the Australian wicket keeper
Rod Marsh and opening bowler Dennis Lillee both placed bets on England to win, claiming that 500-1 were silly odds on any two-horse race.)
On Monday morning the odds began to look generous, as first Brearley, then
David Gower and
Mike Gatting all fell cheaply to reduce England to 41 for 4. Boycott was still anchored at the other end however and he and
Peter Willey added 50 runs before lunch. In the afternoon however, Willey was out for 33 and England were in deep trouble at 105 for 5 as Botham walked out to bat. Matters did not improve as first Geoff Boycott and then
Bob Taylor were soon dismissed. At 135 for 7 an innings defeat looked almost certain.
By all accounts, both teams' players thought Australia would win the match. When
Graham Dilley joined him at the crease, Botham reportedly said, "Right then, let's have a bit of fun...". With able support from Dilley (56) and
Chris Old (29), Botham hit out and by the close of play was 145 not out with
Bob Willis hanging on at the other end on 1 not out. England's lead was just 124 but there was hope. On the final day's play there was time for just four more runs from Botham before Willis was out and Botham was left on 149 not out.
Willis's real contribution was with the ball however, after Botham took the first wicket Willis skittled Australia out for just 111, finishing with figures of 8 for 43. England had won by just 18 runs, it was only the second time in history that a team following on had won a Test match.
The next Test match, at Edgbaston, looked almost as hopeless for England. In a low scoring match (no-one made a score over 48), Australia needed 151 to win. At 5-105, things looked a little worrying for them, but an Australian win was still the most likely result. Botham then took 5 wickets for 1 run in 28 balls to give England the win by 29 runs. (Later, Brearley said that Botham hadn't wanted to bowl and had to be persuaded.)
The
Old Trafford Test was less of a turnaround and more of a team performance than the previous two Tests, but Botham again was England's hero, scoring 118 in what Lillee claimed was a better innings than his Headingley heroics. His sixes in this innings have themselves become a part of cricketing folklore; three of the five were from Lillee's bowling, two of them in the same over. Remarkably, even though he seemed to take his eye off the ball while hooking some fearsome Lillee bouncers, his sheer power and strength carried the ball over the boundary ropes. England won the match, then drew the last match at
The Oval (Botham took 6 wickets in the first innings) to take the series 3-1.
Unsurprisingly, Botham was named man of the series, scoring 399 runs and taking 34 wickets. He was made
BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in
1981 . He is one of only four cricketers to receive the honour, the others being
Jim Laker in
1956 ,
David Steele in
1975 and
Andrew Flintoff in 2005.
The turnaround at Headingley was ranked 5th in Channel 4's
100 Greatest Sporting Moments in 2002.
A colourful character, Botham was suspended briefly in 1986 for smoking
Cannabis , and his private life has occasionally made dramatic appearances in Britain's tabloid newspapers. He is married with three children. His son
Liam Botham was a professional
Rugby player, playing for
Bath and
Cardiff Blues in
Rugby Union and
Wigan Warriors in
Rugby League until his retirement in 2005 due to injury.
After retiring as a player, he became an authoritative
Television Commentator and has participated in a number of long-distance fund-raising walks for charities. He has raised more than five million pounds, with
Leukaemia Research (charity) amongst the causes which have benefited.
Botham was appointed an
OBE in
1992 for services to cricket and for his charity work. For several years, he was a resident team captain on the
BBC Quiz show "
A Question Of Sport ", and he has also taken up offers of appearing in
Pantomimes during the
Christmas period. In 2004, he won the
BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Lifetime Achievement Award . In 2003 he was made the first ever President of Leukaemia Research, the UK's leading blood cancer charity.
Ian Botham's father came from
East Yorkshire . When Ian was young, his father was stationed with the
Fleet Air Arm in Northern Ireland, before he moved to
Yeovil , where he worked at
Westland Helicopters . Botham went to Milford Junior School, where he discovered a liking for sport, especially cricket, and played for Somerset Under-15s. He left Buckler's Mead Comprehensive School at 15, being only interested in playing cricket for Somerset, although he also had an offer to join
Crystal Palace F.C. . From an early age, he always wanted his own way in a devoutly, almost religious, single-minded fashion. When informed that Ian wanted to be a sportsman, the careers master at his school said to him 'Fine, everyone wants to play sport, but what are you really going to do?'.
