If you made Ian Botham prime minister," opined former Test umpire Bill Alley, "he would pick up this country in ten minutes." Alas, we will never know what stirring deeds Sir Ian might have achieved had he entered politics and been given the keys to 10 Downing Street, but on a cricket pitch the mere sight of him striding out to the wicket or running up to bowl would immediately pick up his teammates.
Botham will not be remembered as either the best batsman or bowler of all time, but no one possessed a more finely tuned sense of timing; throughout the 1980s, whenever England were on the verge of cricket disaster, up showed 'Beefy' to save the day like a comic strip hero. Return with me to the battle for the Ashes in 1981 when every day, so it seemed, added another unlikely chapter to the legend.
Having begun the campaign against Australia as captain, Botham was returned to the ranks after being dismissed for a pair in the drawn second Test at Lord's, leaving England 1-0 behind in the series. Whether he resigned or was axed remains in doubt to this day, but given his past deeds on his country's behalf, Botham deserved better than to be greeted with a stony silence by the MCC members on his return to the pavilion after his second duck. Deeply hurt, for the rest of his remarkable career he would studiously ignore the members' applause whenever he played at Lord's.
The third Test at Headingley, when Botham turned looming defeat into glorious victory with his cavalier knock of 149 not out - rated the fourth best innings in history by Wisden - secured his place in the nation's affections. Such had been the scarcely believable turnaround in England's fortunes at Headingley, that Botham's efforts in the Fourth Test at Edgbaston tend to be overlooked. But it was, perhaps, the man's greatest hour.
Needing 151 to win with two days remaining, everyone in the land expected Australia to level the series for, as one grizzled cricket writer noted at the time: "Miracles, like lightning, do not strike twice..." But the packed crowd of 15,000 in Birmingham that Sunday afternoon of Aug 2 did, indeed, witness another miracle performed, as ever, by IT Botham. At 105 for four and with Allan Border unbeaten on 40, things looked increasingly bleak for England until the Australian skipper was desperately unfortunate to be caught off his gloves from a delivery by John Emburey that lifted without warning. The England captain, Mike Brearley, was toying with the notion of bringing on Peter Willey to attack the Aussies with spin at both ends, but changed his mind and called for a reluctant Botham, who had to be cajoled into bowling.
Twenty eight deliveries and for the loss of only one run later, the five remaining Australian batsmen had been dismissed leaving England the winners by 29 runs and Botham man of the match thanks to his second innings figures of five for 11 off 14 overs. Two weeks later, the Ashes were in England's hands when Botham (who else?) engineered another 'victory from the jaws of defeat' cameo at Old Trafford to give his team a 3-1 lead in the best-of-six series.
Having taken a 101-run first innings lead, England had collapsed to 104 for five when Botham strutted out to join Chris Tavare at a time when the Australian bowlers were in the ascendency. In 123 minutes and off just 102 balls, Botham smashed 118 runs to every corner of the pitch, including six sixes (three coming in a single over off the bowling of Dennis Lillee) and 13 fours. Inspired by Botham's knock - which Lillee rated even finer than his Headingley innings - England won by 103 runs.
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