Ian Botham

Ian Botham

Botham as batsman in Trent Bridge , 1983
Player information
Surname	Sir Ian Terence Botham
Born	November 24, 1955 (age 64) Heswall , Cheshire , England
Nickname	Beefy, Guy the Gorilla
height	1.88 m
Batting style	Right handed
Bowling style	Right-handed almost medium bowler
Player role	All-rounder
International games
National team	England
Test debut (cap 474)	28 July 1977 v  Australia
Last test	June 18, 1992 v  Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 33)	26 August 1976 v  West Indies
Last ODI	August 24, 1992 v  Pakistan
National teams
Years	team
1992-1993	Durham
1987-1991	Worcestershire
1987-1988	Queensland
1974-1986	Somerset
Career statistics
Game form	Testing	ODI	FC	LA
Games	102	116	402	470
Runs (total)	5,200	2.113	19,399	10,474
Batting average	33.54	23.21	33.97	29.50
100s / 50s	14/22	0/9	38/97	7/46
Highscore	208	79	228	175 *
Balls	21,815	6,271	63,547	22,899
Wickets	383	145	1,172	612
Bowling Average	28.40	28.54	27.22	24.94
5 wickets in innings	27	0	59	3
10 wickets in play	4th	n / A	8th	n / A
Best bowling performance	8-34	4-31	8-34	5-27
Catches / stumpings	120 / -	36 / -	354 / -	196 / -
Source: www.cricketarchive.com , August 22, 2007

Sir Ian Terence Botham , OBE (born November 24, 1955 in Heswall , Merseyside ) is a former English cricketer and now radio and television commentator for international cricket matches. Because of his success, he is considered a sports legend.

Athletic career

Cricket

County Championship

Botham played in the English County Championship for Somerset, Worcestershire and Durham from 1974 to 1993 . In the 1986/87 season he also played in Australia for Queensland. In his team he was an all-rounder , so was used both as a batsman (bat) and as a bowler (thrower). He had a total of 402 appearances in first-class matches and 470 appearances in one-day matches. In 1986 he was banned for 63 days for cannabis use.

International career

Botham played his first test match in 1977. In a total of 102 test matches for England over a period of 15 years, he scored 14 Centuries and 383 wickets . In the first half of his career in particular, his statistics were so good that he would have been listed as a specialized batsman or bowler. The second half of his career, on the other hand, drops significantly, partly due to a back injury that significantly reduced his throwing speed.

In 12 test matches he was the captain of the English team, but without being able to achieve significant success.

He also played from 1976 to 1992 in 116 One-Day Internationals for England.

Botham holds a number of records . He lost his record for most wickets in test cricket for England after 23 years to James Anderson .

Botham's Ashes

In the Ashes series 1981 Botham was a legend. After a loss and a draw in the first two games, he resigned from the office of team captain after not scoring a single run in two innings in the last game.

In the third game , which was played in Headingley , the English team were hopelessly behind (the bets were 1-500) when Botham turned the game with an innings of 149 runs and England won. The match received such a degree of public attention that even the House of Commons suspended its session and congratulated the team.

In the next game the English were again in a difficult position before Botham scored five Australian wickets in a bowling spell of 28 balls in just one run by the opponent and gave his team the victory. In the next game he scored a Century. In total, he scored 399 runs and 34 wickets in the test series. England won 3-1 in two draws.

Soccer

Botham was also a good football player. Before starting his cricket career, he also had an offer from Crystal Palace . In the early 1980s he played 14 games (11 league and 3 cup games) for the then fourth-rate club Scunthorpe United , and in 1984/85 for Yeovil Town in the fifth-rate Football Conference (10/1 in the league, 2/1 in Cup games).

Private life

Botham has been married since 1976. He has two daughters and one son. The latter also played first class cricket, but mainly rugby union and rugby league each in the first division.

Botham has been campaigning intensively for many years, especially through long-distance marches, for the charity “Leukemia Research”, which has set itself the task of supporting research in the field of leukemia and similar diseases. Botham has raised more than £ 10 million for the organization of which he is president.

Honors

In 1978 Botham was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year . In 1981 he was voted United Kingdom Sportsman of the Year ; he received the same honor again in 2004 for his life's work.

Botham was accepted into the Order of the British Empire in 1992 because of his services to the sport of cricket as well as his commitment to charity . In 2007, he was therefore beaten by Queen Elizabeth II to the Knight Bachelor .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.theguardian.com: Caborn attacked on plan to ease dope rules , December 13, 2006 (English)
2. ↑ Jimmy Anderson breaks Ian Botham's England record of 383 Test wickets in The Guardian , April 17, 2015, accessed April 18, 2015.
3. ↑ content-uk.cricinfo.com: The great escape (engl.)
4. ↑ No bowler is allowed to bowl two overs in a row, so two bowlers often take turns for several overs . The overs completed by a bowler "immediately one after the other" (each with an over pause) are called bowling spells .
5. ↑ Enjoy it - Botham ( English ) Scunthorpe United. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
6. ↑ Interview with Ian Botham ( English ) The first 90 minutes. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
7. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: A lionheart on and off the pitch (Engl.)
8. ↑ content-usa.cricinfo.com: Ian Botham knighted in Birthday Honors (Engl.)