England's greatest all-rounder whose larger-than-life personality, legendary Ashes performances, and off-field escapades made him cricket's ultimate showman.
14 incidents documented
Pakistan vs England
1992-03-25
On March 25, 1992, Pakistan beat England by 22 runs at the MCG to lift their first cricket World Cup. Imran Khan's 72 and Wasim Akram's match-defining all-round performance (33 with the bat, 3/49 with the ball, including the wickets of Lamb and Lewis with consecutive deliveries) sealed it. Imran retired immediately afterwards.
India, New Zealand
1988-11-12
On 12 November 1988 at Bangalore, Richard Hadlee took his 374th Test wicket — overtaking Ian Botham as the leading wicket-taker in Test history.
England, New Zealand
1986-08-21
After admitting in the Mail on Sunday to having smoked cannabis, Ian Botham was banned for 63 days by the TCCB in May 1986 — and came back at The Oval in August to take a wicket with his first ball and pass Dennis Lillee's world Test wicket record.
England, West Indies
1984-07-02
Set 342 in 78 overs by David Gower's declaration, Gordon Greenidge made an unbeaten 214 at better than a run a ball to win the Lord's Test for West Indies with two overs to spare.
England vs Various
1982-07-01
Cricket crowds have produced some of the funniest sledges in sport, from heckling players about their personal lives to creative musical chants.
England, Australia
1981-07-21
Forced to follow on and at one stage 500-1 against by the Ladbrokes board, England were rescued by Ian Botham's 149 not out and Bob Willis's 8 for 43 to win a Test no team has ever logically come back from.
England, Australia
1981-07-30
Set just 151 to win, Australia were cruising at 105 for 4 when Mike Brearley persuaded a reluctant Ian Botham to bowl. Twenty-eight balls and one run later Botham had taken 5 for 1 and Australia had collapsed to 121 all out.
England, Australia
1981-08-15
After Headingley and Edgbaston, Ian Botham completed his 1981 trilogy with 118 at Old Trafford — six sixes off Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman, and a hundred from 86 balls that many called the greatest Ashes innings ever played.
England, Australia
1981-07-07
After making a pair at Lord's and presiding over a 12-Test winless captaincy run, Ian Botham resigned the England captaincy minutes before the selectors were going to sack him.
England vs Various
1981-07-21
Ian 'Beefy' Botham's off-field escapades were as legendary as his on-field heroics, making him cricket's original rock star.
Sussex and England
1923-09-15
Through 1922 and 1923, on the advice of his Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan, the 28-year-old off-spinner Maurice Tate switched to fast-medium swing bowling. The change produced 219 wickets in 1923, his Test debut against South Africa at Edgbaston in 1924, and the bowling career that became the model for the English fast-medium swing tradition.
MCC v Australians
1899-07-31
On 31 July 1899, in a tour match between MCC and the touring Australians at Lord's, Middlesex's Australian-born all-rounder Albert Trott — playing for MCC — hit Monty Noble for what is still the only six ever struck clean over the Lord's pavilion. The ball glanced a chimney stack and landed in pavilion attendant Philip Need's garden behind the building. The blow has not been matched in 125 years of cricket at Lord's.
Australia v England
1895-03-06
Across the five Tests of the 1894-95 Ashes, George Giffen — Australia's captain, opening bowler and number-three batsman — scored 475 runs at 52.78 and took 34 wickets at 24.12. The combined haul is still, 130 years later, the best all-round performance in any Test series in cricket history. Australia lost the rubber 2-3, but Giffen's series average has never been matched.
Australia
1880-09-06
George Bonnor stood six feet six, weighed 17 stone and could throw a cricket ball further than any man of his era. The 'Bathurst Giant' played 17 Tests for Australia in the 1880s, hit a six measured at 164 yards out of the MCG, completed three runs from a single shot before being caught at the boundary, and is supposed to have smashed the Melbourne pavilion clock with one stroke. He was the era's tallest, heaviest, biggest-hitting Test cricketer.