Ian Botham - Botham’s Century - My 100 great cricketing characters

BOTHAM’S CENTURY

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Title Page BOTHAM ’S CENTURY

Preface Preface Botham’s Century is not a selection of my favourite hundred cricketers; nor are the players I have written about necessarily the best hundred I ever saw or played with or against. Indeed some of the characters in the book might only use a cricket bat for leaning on. In essence the book is a collection of my thoughts and impressions of one hundred people who have had an impact on my cricketing life, however tenuous. It has been my good fortune to know them all. IAN BOTHAM

Curtly AMBROSE

John ARLOTT

Robin ASKWITH

Mike ATHERTON

Douglas BADER

Ken BARRINGTON

Bill BEAUMONT

Franz BECKENBAUER

Richie BENAUD

Dickie BIRD

Allan BORDER

Max BOYCE

Geoff BOYCOTT

Mike BREARLEY

Laurie BROWN

Tom CARTWRIGHT

Sylvester CLARKE

Brian CLOSE

Colin COWDREY

Colin CROFT

Hansie CRONJE

Basil D’OLIVEIRA

John DAVIES

Ted DEXTER

Graham DILLEY

Allan DONALD

Phil EDMONDS

John EDRICH

Ernie ELS

John EMBUREY

David ENGLISH

Nick FALDO

The FISHERMEN

Keith FLETCHER

Angus FRASER

Joel GARNER

Mike GATTING

Sunil GAVASKAR

Graham GOOCH

Darren GOUGH

David GOWER

Tony GREIG

Richard HADLEE

Ian HEALY

Richard HIBBITT

Graeme HICK

Michael HOLDING

Merv HUGHES

Nasser HUSSAIN

Imran KHAN

Mick JAGGER

Javed MIANDAD

Elton JOHN and Bob HALLEY

Kapil DEV

Karim DIN

Alan KNOTT

Allan LAMB

Christopher LANDER

Dennis LILLEE

Clive LLOYD

David LLOYD

Nelson MANDELA

Vic MARKS

Rod MARSH

Malcolm MARSHALL

Glenn MCGRATH

Colin MILBURN

Muttiah MURALITHARAN

Douglas OSBORNE

Derek PRINGLE

Mike PROCTER

Derek RANDALL

Clive RICE

Barry RICHARDS

Viv RICHARDS

Andy ROBERTS

Dave ROBERTS

Ricky ROBERTS

Jack RUSSELL

A C SMITH

Robin SMITH

Garfield SOBERS

Alec STEWART

Micky STEWART

Chris TAVARE

Bob TAYLOR

Les TAYLOR

Sachin TENDULKAR

Jeff THOMSON

Sam TORRANCE

Phil TUFNELL

Derek UNDERWOOD

Courtney WALSH

Waqar YOUNIS

Shane WARNE

Wasim AKRAM

Steve WAUGH

Bob WILLIS

Andy WITHERS

Ian WOOSNAM

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Botham’s Century is not a selection of my favourite hundred cricketers; nor are the players I have written about necessarily the best hundred I ever saw or played with or against. Indeed some of the characters in the book might only use a cricket bat for leaning on. In essence the book is a collection of my thoughts and impressions of one hundred people who have had an impact on my cricketing life, however tenuous. It has been my good fortune to know them all.

IAN BOTHAM

‘Hey, Beefy, man.’ The drawl could only have belonged to His Royal Highness King (later Sir) Vivian Richards.

‘Yes, Smokes,’ I replied.

‘Beefy, you know Big Bird is retiring.’

The year was 1986 and I had indeed heard that Joel Garner, my buddy from Somerset and my enemy on the pitch in matches between the West Indies and England, had decided to call it a day, and it goes without saying I was gutted that I would never again have the pleasure of taking my life in my hands against him on a cricket field.

‘Yes, Viv.’ I said. ‘Shame.’

‘Well, Beef, don’t fret. We got another. Only problem is he don’t like cricket. Jeez, Beefy … he wants to play baaasketbaall, man.’

If only. If only. All those hours of torment for England batsmen might never have happened. Then again, world cricket would have been immeasurably poorer for Curtly Ambrose’s absence.

The good people of his tiny home village of Swetes in Antigua may have grown a mite tired of it, but the sight and sound of Curtly’s mum ringing the bell outside her house every time the radio told her that her boy had struck again for the West Indies is one of the great romantic images of the modern game.

Over the years from his debut against Pakistan in 1987 to the moment at the end of the 2000 series against England at The Oval when he and his partner Courtney Walsh were afforded the rare honour of a standing ovation from opponents and spectators alike, the bell tolled for the best batsmen in world cricket, for some over and over again – in total more than 300 times – Curtly’s partnership with the giant gentleman Jamaican, based as much on profound mutual respect as acute inter-island and personal rivalry, was one of the most penetrative of all time.

The abiding impression I had of Amby as a bowler and an opponent was that, for a cricketer who thrived on aggression and menace, he was one of the quietest I ever encountered. Sometimes, even in a moment of great triumph ‘long bones’ appeared the most reluctant and detached of heroes.

I can honestly say that in the Test arena I never saw him bowl badly. Of course, he was miserly accurate. Of course, he had the stamina of a horse. Of course, he never seemed to give you anything to hit, and of course, when the mood took him as it did when he obliterated Mike Atherton’s England side for 46 at Port of Spain in 1994, he could be as unforgiving and as devastating as a hurricane. In certain conditions at his peak he was virtually unplayable. But maybe, of all these weapons, the most potent was his silence.

Curtly never said much on the field and off it, particularly to the press; practically nothing. The fact is that he never needed to. Many bowlers have tried to put batsmen off their stroke by utilizing various forms of verbal and physical intimidation. Curtly intimidated you with hush.

On the field, even the idea of sledging was just a waste of energy, time and breath to him. When a batsman played and missed, instead of blathering on about it as some did, the usual response was either a ‘tut-tut’, a flash of the widest, toothiest grin in the game, or a perplexed raise of the eyebrow as if to enquire: ‘Can you really be as bad as you look?’

As for King Curt’s attitude to the media, and his mischievous sense of humour, it is best summed up for me by a story I heard concerning the attempts of one of Her Majesty’s press to interview him during the West Indies’ tour to England in 1991. The News of the World instructed their man David Norrie to find Amby and get him to bare his soul. Norrie, aware of the generally-held belief that it was almost impossible to persuade Curtly to open his mouth, let alone his heart, decided he had better try to enlist some help. Having had some dealings with Viv Richards over the years, the intrepid newshound approached the Masterblaster outside the dressing room in Swansea and asked if he would mind asking Curtly if he would spare him a few minutes of his valuable time for an interview. Viv said he would do his best and advised Norrie to wait. Soon afterwards, the huge figure of Curtly came to the dressing-room door and the reporter reached for his notebook, understandably elated that his ingenious approach had enabled him to crack the toughest nut in the game.