Botham and drops of nostalgia
Just when fans had drawn back, aghast at the futility of loving cricket, came a teasing reminder of what the game has been missing for a while. After the sequel of comic operas in the last three months, Ian Terence Botham’s knighthood was the only news that brought back the ah in cricket.
It has happened when the game could do with a fresh acquaintance. Who better to tickle our bones than Botham, the relic of the age that once was and may never be again.
Every sport craves characters as much as great games to paint it rich. Could white flannels and eleven perfectionists – and a few with sublime talents – have made cricket half as impacting as it is now? But touch it up with Gundappa Viswanath’s grace and simplicity, a thick coat of Sir Vivian Richards’ swagger, spike it with Shane Warne’s eccentricity, add to the mix Botham – and cricket starts to smoke of colour.
Those who followed the game in the heydays of the 80s would trust Botham over miracles. Yet nobody would know what to expect of him. Pit him against an opposition that doesn’t stand level with his skills but you still wouldn’t be certain whether he would find his elements. Nonetheless every child in London knew the way to bring back that ring of menace: make him hear the Baggy Green’s footsteps.
Recall the 1992 World Cup; England were divided over his inclusion. Botham of the famous Headingley Test found mention only in fables. Meanwhile, England tried to reincarnate him in Phillip DeFreitas, Dermot Reeve, Chris Lewis and all and sundry who had pretensions to all-round prowess.
It was David Gower who reasoned that Botham might not have made it to his county side, but there should be no debate over his place in the World Cup eleven. He was the man for the big occasion.
Botham was 36 then but had a bit in the reserves to hold his mantle. Come Perth, India v England. A lightsome Sachin Tendulkar looked like taking the game away till Botham let rip the ball of the World Cup. Pitched on leg and middle, the flawless outswinger deviated just a little to brush Tendulkar’s blade en route to Alec Stewart.
Few days later he routed his favourite opponent, Australia, with figures of 4/31 and followed it up with a breezy 53. What a pity that the luck of the draw didn’t fall his way in the finals (1/42 in seven and a blob). It was a perfect setting for a Botham-charge but not all greats win a cheerful sunset, do they?
We can’t un-spool Botham’s times without his famous escapades. Perhaps we may never unriddle how someone who regaled us with his skills within the 22 yards could metamorphose into a strange caricature off it. It was a quirky contrast but it left behind some side-splitting anecdotes.
Yograj Singh told this writer: "Once, he challenged Bob Willis for a hundred laps at Wankhede. While Willis gave up after 65 rounds, Botham was still going strong at 85 and had to be stopped. And he still had enough steam to go for a swim."
Dilip Doshi will never forget this (it must have happened during India’s tour to England, 1982). Doshi averaged just over four in Test cricket, but nobody could be as obsessed about bat-maintenance as he was. A stickler to boot, he oiled it diligently. Imagine his horror when he found that some Smart Alec had polished his bat profusely with banana paste.
Doshi, as his wont, waxed indignant at all his teammates until he ran into the hulky frame that snared 383 Test wickets. "I did it," Botham said trotting out his gruff exterior just the way he postured himself in the slips. Doshi balked at him for a while and vamoosed.
In a lighter vein this could be laughed off, although there were instances when Botham double-faulted to the point of sounding fickle. Who else in that era could have remarked: "Kapil will never surpass Richard Hadlee’s world record" or "Pakistan is not the place to send one’s mother-in-law." But he wouldn’t have been Ian Botham if you expected the obvious.
Perhaps, at a time when the game’s popularity is threatened, we could draw breath from the Botham classics. And as David Gower says celebrate his supreme talents and appetite of life. Wouldn’t the game love such an engagement?
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Posted Monday , June 25, 2007 : By Shafiq
Nice way to showering tributes to game''s special talent, a legend.But why the writer is so biasd with Paistanis? How...
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