Botham: The Legend of '81 (BBC2)

R.I.P. Bob Willis. An equally important part of the success in the '81 Ashes.

As an Aussie I hated Mr Botham. But as he isn't kicking our asses anymore i can afford to give him the enormous respect he deserves. Well played sir, I miss watching you flog my team.

Ian's friendship with Viv Richards always inspiring

Having Viv and Big Bird as your nightclub bodyguards - that's hilarious.

As an Aussie, I always loved watching Botham. He was in a class of his own, a cricket giant.

I remember this summer as a child so well. To say Ian Botham was a national hero was an understatement, I don’t think I’ve witnessed anybody getting even close to the status he had ever since. Mind you it wouldn’t have happened without ‘angry’ Bob Willis’s bowling cameo at Headingley.

For me Willis' bowling that day was the greatest display of pace and hostility I've ever seen.

Brings tears to my eyes seeing the love and passion for the country and ofc the game itself 😭😭💔

I have tears watching this. I watched him in the Bangalore test during 80.81. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE my super hero, Ian Botham! Very few people inspire people across the globe!@ Ian B was certainly one of them.

Every boy wanted to be him and do what he did. A great Englishman who will be forever respected for ever in the realms of sporting hero’s and for the money he’s raised for charity’s. I wish him a very long and happy life.

Every time I hear the late and very great Richie Benaud say "Bowled 'im, it's all over" at Headingley it makes me cry.

This is the best doco I've ever seen. Ian is not only a champion and knight, but also a saint. (Don't tell my friends, but as an Australian, it's OK if England win the odd game. I'm glad to share the same air as you Sir Ian!)

I'm glad that they gave Bob Willis his due in this documentary when they talked about Headingley 1981. Ian Botham quite rightly gets lauded for his efforts in that match, but without Willis' bowling spell, I think the Aussies probably end up sneaking the win.

Let's also not forget that in that '81 Headingley Test, Ian Botham also took 6-95 from 40 odd overs in Australia's first innings of 400 odd, then top scored for England in their first innings of only 174 with exactly 50, before the fantastic 149* in the follow-on innings. This was the fourth out of five occasions in his test career that he scored a century and took a 5-for in the same test. No other all-rounder in test cricket history achieved this feat more than twice. That says plenty about his ability as an all-rounder to take a match by the scruff of the neck and dominate it! The other great all-rounders who performed that allround feat on two occasions were Sir Garfield Sobers of the West Indies, Mushtaq Mohammed of Pakistan, and Jacques Kallis of South Africa. Just the three. Botham did it more than twice as many times as any of them. He was one of a good number of truly great test all-rounders that cricket history has given us, the other three in the '70s & '80s providing such magnificent competition for him in Imran Khan, Sir Richard Hadlee, and Kapil Dev. However there has never been another all-rounder quite like him, or indeed quite on his level in terms of being able to completely dominate a single match and more or less win it for his team. Sobers is widely regarded as the greatest actual all-rounder of all time. Perhaps rightly so - these things are somewhat subjective of course, but Botham in his own way was utterly incomparable. Especially when he was at his very consistent best in the first half of his career before the foot and back injuries affected the consistency of his game and the pace of his bowling. Nevertheless, while a lot has been made of his deterioration as a player, he remained a fantastic all-rounder to the end who was still as likely to do something remarkable as not. A truly great player, and without doubt a great English man.

In June 1974, Somerset were playing Leicestershire in a John Player Sunday League match at Westlands in Yeovil, my home town. I was ten years old. At the time, i didn't have much love for cricket, football being my game. So, I sloped off and started to play football in the adjecent football pitch. A boy joined me, a boy who was in the year below me at school and we played football under the hot sun. Soon we were thirsty. We saw the queue for the refreshments, so then he said "my brother will get us some water" He took me down to the changing rooms, their was no pavilion. A cricketer was sat in all his whites and my friend told me that he was his brother and was twelve man for Somerset. This was nearly 45 years ago, however I remember immediately that the cricketer was special, he argued a little with his brother but eventually got us some water. I remember how he looked, how he behaved and how I was immediately in awe of him. Of course the cricketer was IT Botham. Still 45 years later he is still my sporting hero.

As an Aussie, I salute you Sir Ian

Botham deserves a movie

Absolute legend. Ran Geoffrey Boycott out when he was scoring too slowly, ran the Aussies ragged, and that Old Trafford 100 was, as Stephen Fry said, his best innings ever. Don't forget Graham Dilley's part in the Headingly match, he hit a fifty in that 2nd innings and stuck around with Beefy, Chris Old hung around too.

I have only a handful of idols. Ian Botham is one of them. The greatest sportsman that England has ever produced.

Watching this just after we beat the Aussies at Headingly 25th August '19 by 1 wicket!