Straight talk with a dash of humour. That was Lord Ian Botham at the Tiger Pataudi Memorial Lecture, a joint initiative by The Bengal Club and The Telegraph, presented by the Bhawanipur Global Campus and powered by Eden, on Tuesday.
The near-capacity turnout at the GD Birla Sabhaghar auditorium lapped it up as if it was a perfectly-made tequila for a pleasant evening.
The former England captain and one of the best all-rounders cricket has ever produced spoke on quite a few of the aspects for close to an hour. But what stood out
was his candid views on Test cricket being the ultimate in the sport.
‘Fight & play’
Unlike some of his counterparts who seem to get easily swayed by T20 and franchise leagues, Botham sticks to his opinion on the game’s oldest and longest format, which to him, remains the pinnacle.
“... You go and win the T20 (World Cup) and now you control the world in many ways. If that’s good, it’s debatable. I think sometimes Test cricket gets overlooked and believe me, as far as I’m concerned, if we don’t have Test cricket, we don’t have cricket as I know it,” Botham, who played 102 Tests, scored 5,200 runs, hit 14 centuries and took 383 wickets, said.
“Look at the history books. I haven’t seen too much about who won the IPL. A lot of people in England and Australia don’t know (about the IPL) unless they’re actually physically involved. To me, if you go down there, Test cricket is called Test cricket because it tests all the faculties and that to me is proof of the pudding.
“It’s not a case of going out there and flogging a couple of sixes. You’re out there to fight and play. And five days test everything, particularly the physical side of the game.”
Admiration for Kohli
Virat Kohli is still going strong in ODIs as well in the ongoing IPL. But he deserved a special mention from Botham more because he upholds Tests and gives the longest format the importance it deserves.
“I love it when Virat says winning Test matches for India means more to him than anything else in the game. And that, for me, sums it up.
“Winning the IPL is fine. That’s good, that’s a few quid. But he wants to go down as a Test player and one of the finest. And for me, he certainly is. He has got a lot about it,” Botham stated.
Sunny’s ‘fear’
In his inimitable humour, Botham shared one side of the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, which he felt isn’t known to many. “I don’t know if you know this, but he (Sunny)
has a total fear of dogs,” Botham said.
“So, he was playing at Somerset with us. We’re out there, and I’m going for a quiet drink at the stadium. Next door was this phone box.
“In those days, you didn’t have mobile phones. So, Sunny had to put a few coins into the box. He went in there, stands there on the phone.
“I had my boxer dog with me, and very often you had to sit there and not move. And Sunny would refuse to come out. He was in there for about 45 minutes, believe me, and it was a hot day.
“Yeah, he wasn’t overly impressed. But he had a great sense of humour, apart from being just a great cricketer... One of my proudest moments is my 100th Test wicket when he was caught at slip. I do remind him of that as well.”
His admiration for Gavaskar aside, Botham hailed Viv Richards, who too was his long-time teammate at Somerset, as the best of all. “Viv was arguably the most modern player that I’ve seen.
“You’ve got players like Sunil, you’ve got Sachin, you’ve got Virat, all great players. But for me, Viv would be right up there,” Botham said.
‘Box office’ Warne
For Botham, it was “ridiculous” when he was told about Shane Warne’s demise on March 4, 2022. Botham not just commentated a lot of times when Warne was in action, they also played “a lot of golf together”.
“It (Warne’s death) was very, very sad, because what he did when he would play cricket was, he emptied bars, and unlike a lot of other players, filled the bars. He was
box office, a great guy and misunderstood, particularly in Australia.
“He would ring up on a day off in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne. He’d ring up one of the schools and he’d go up there on one condition: no press.
“And he’d spend a couple of hours with the team and go through all sorts of routines with them. Never ever did it reach the papers, and he didn’t want it that way. He was quite a revolt.”
Mandela’s praise
Botham shared an interesting anecdote with post-Apartheid South Africa’s first president Nelson Mandela, who had words of praise for him during the inaugural year of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation in Monaco. “At the end of it, Mr Mandela came onto the stage, said the final words to wish everyone well.
“The curtain came down. I stood there talking to Viv, and Mr Mandela put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘You’re my hero. I said, ‘What?’ And he looked around.
“’Are you talking to me, Sir?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘I was incarcerated for 27 years.’ And I caught up with him... ‘So, I used to see the papers, and I saw how many times you turned down and refused to go on the rebel tours of South Africa (when it was banned during the Apartheid era),” Botham recalled. “He had once told my wife (in Johannesburg), ‘I’m very, very fond of your husband, but he can be a bit naughty at times, can’t he?”
1981 Leeds
Everyone talks about the 1981 Ashes series, also knowsn as “Botham’s Ashes” after he almost single-handedly guided England to a 3-1 victory. That, even after losing his captaincy to Mike Brearley. In his own words, “’81 changed my life.”
Revisiting that third Test at Leeds, Botham said: “We lost the toss, and Australia
were 400-odd (401/9 declared). We were awful then... All out for 170 on a reasonably
good wicket.
“The Australian team then knocked on the door, and said very simply, ‘Follow on, boys.’ We’re not going so well (135/7 following on). Then Graham Dilley came out and showed everyone has a moment. I told him to just smack as the wicket was starting to break and it (ball) was deviating here and there. He did so.”
Dilley scored 56, Botham remained unbeaten on 149 at a strike rate of 100.67 and thereafter, Bob Willis finished with 8/43 as England shot the Australians out for 111 after setting them a 130-run target.
And then, the dressing room attendant from South Africa, Ricky Roberts, who got England bottles of champagne from the Australian dressing room, went on to be Ernie Els’ caddy for all his Major wins, Botham added.