Sir Ian Botham on why Aussies are the most competitive cricket players
The English-Australian rivalry has an intensity like no other, but legend Sir Ian Botham says without it that’s just not cricket.
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HM: Lord, Baron, Mr Botham, Sir, Ian, Beefy – nice to have options.
IB: (laughs) … It is! I suppose you can take the shortcut and go the sirloin of beef.
HM: What would you like me to call you?
IB: Beefy please, mate.
HM: After a busy life and a huge body of important work behind you end up with so many titles, and you just gathered another, UK Trade Envoy to Australia!
IB: The business card is getting fuller! I found it amazing we didn’t already have a trade deal with Australia given the way we stood shoulder to shoulder through the world wars. We got out of Europe, and when Brexit came to fruition, suddenly the whole world opened for us in England. It’s exciting times. I have a lot of friends that I’ve got to know over the last 40 years, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it all. Who would have ever thought this is how it would have ended up?
HM: Does Boris call you and say, “Beefy, I’d really like you to be UK’s trade envoy to Australia”.
IB: It’s not too far off that to be fair! I was approached by Liz Truss, who is now Foreign Secretary, but was International Trade Secretary before that. I had a chat to her, and I said, “One of the advantages I can offer is I can open doors”. I then got a letter from Boris wishing me well, and I was up and running. People know me in Australia, it’s worked well.
HM: It’s amazing where a game can take you. Because of your extraordinary sporting career, you’ve been able to spend time with her majesty, be the UK’s trade envoy and done such extraordinary work for charities, all because you had an amazing ability to hit, catch, and bowl a ball.
IB: (laughs) Funny isn’t it! My life has been exciting on and off the field, playing, commentating for Sky for 23 years, and now I’m over here and I’m working with Channel 7, and Triple M radio. It’s a classic case of an acorn growing into a tree! I’ve spent the last two years on crutches, I’ve had problems with my spine, both my hips – I’ve been rebuilt! It’s given me a lot of time to think about what’s next!
HM: What did you establish?
IB: That I wasn’t ready to do nothing! That there was a lot more to do!
HM: I heard from someone you really enjoyed the first lockdown last year.
IB: I really did. When you go through your 20s and 30s, that’s the period where you can play the game at your best. And to be the best, or to mix with the best, you need complete tunnel vision and a high degree of selfishness. Consequently, to my children, I wasn’t the best father in the world, but I intend to be the greatest grandad in the world! Covid gave me time with all the kids and the grandkids. I had a lot of them around, little Arthur who is two and a half now – my daughters youngest. James was there, who went on to play rugby for Cardiff and Wales in rugby. My granddaughter was around, my eldest grandson was stranded in Perth, in Margaret River – there could be worse places to be stranded! It was a strange period, but a really great time. Second time around, not so much. I couldn’t get my head around what it would be like if you were in the city centre, in a flat, two up, two down, with two young kids and a dog. That must have been a nightmare.
HM: Horrible. That singular focus you speak about, it’s seemingly very hard to establish the life balance without feeling you are leaving something on the table in the sporting sphere while you are playing, people only see it later. It’s tricky, there’s a lot of causalities with that mentality.
IB: There are, and you don’t realise that until you’re finished as you say. The penny drops, but it takes a while, because you are so focused. You’ve got one thing on your mind, and that is, as a sportsman, to get to number one in the world. It does take up a lot of time, and your family feels the brunt of your mood swings if you’re playing badly. I’m playing catch up now!
HM: You were an exceptional footballer. How close were you to staying with football, as opposed to choosing cricket?
IB: It was pretty simple. Crystal Palace, who were a very good side as they are now, did approach my mother and father about me. They spoke to the three of us, and I said to my father, “What do you reckon?”. He was in the navy, and he was asked by the Bolton Wanderers, who were a bit like the Man United of today, to sign a three-year contract. He said, “No, I’m staying in the navy, I want to get the pension”. This wouldn’t happen nowadays! I loved cricket a little more and stayed with it.
HM: Dennis Lillee spoke recently around how he was paid $200 to play for Australia, and $32 to play for Western Australia. Were you similar early on?
IB: When I played my first test match, we’d just gone from 200 pounds a game, to a thousand pounds. That was all down to Kerry Packer, who transformed the world of cricket for the better. Suddenly, players were getting a decent wage in comparison to what had been paid previously. I was lucky because that happened overnight just before I played my first test.
HM: Good timing. Before your first test, you played for Somerset, and played alongside some of the greatest names in world cricket.
IB: And made some great friends. Brian Close was my captain, who had a massive influence on my approach to the game, and of course, there was Viv (Richards). Viv and I made our debut together in 74’ and spent the next 15 years together at Somerset. It was great. I shared a house with him for 10 years, and it was a great friendship. One that will last forever. He has been stranded in Antigua for 2 years, but if we bumped into each other in the street now, it would be seamless, we would just pick up where we left. That’s our kind of relationship.
HM: He’s your son Liam’s godfather, isn’t he?
IB: He is. That tells you how I regard him.
HM: Liam was a good sportsman too.
IB: He was. He played his debut for Hampshire against Middlesex and took five wickets. The headline the next day – Chip Off The Old Block. He looked at me and said, “I’m going back to playing rugby!” And that’s what he did. He made his own luck. He toured South Africa with the full England side, he had a great try scoring record on the wing for Cardiff, and now his son is playing in Cardiff. He was born there, so has always sworn his allegiance to Wales. He’s closing in on ten Welsh caps already.
HM: You mentioned Brian Close, your captain and your mentor at Somerset. How safe was it driving to training with him?
IB: That was one of the problems! You would avoid getting into the car with Closey wherever possible. I was at his place one day, and he said, “Would you just run me down to pick my car up. I had a dent taken out of it”. We got to the garage, and there’s a bloke polishing the bonnet of the car. He got into it, drove out of the garage onto the main road, went up to the roundabout and went straight into the back of a milk float. He came round the roundabout, and straight back onto the forecourt. The poor bloke hadn’t even put his duster away!
HM: He wasn’t particularly focused from what I can gather.
IB: He wasn’t. He would study the card at Doncaster while he was lighting a cigarette and steering with his knees, or eating a beef sandwich on long journeys, with a cup of tea. It was interesting!
HM: When you made your international test debut, it must be daunting walking into the room for the first time with the English XI?
IB:It’s daunting, but a massive uplift. I didn’t know the guys particularly well, I’d played against them once or twice. We went down to the nets the day before the game, to appease the press, show your face and get a few photographs taken. I was wandering across, and I got a hand on my shoulder, someone who went on to become one of my great mates – Bob Willis. He just said, “Mate, you’ll enjoy it. Relax, have fun and play well”. That made a big difference, and certainly settled me down. Bobby and I remained great friends until he passed away a year ago.
HM: Why is the Australian and English rivalry so intense?
IB: I’m not sure, but I love it. One of the great lessons my old man gave me very early on, was when we were watching an Ashes game on the TV in black and white. He said to me, “If you are ever in trouble, son, the person you want to look for and stand shoulder to shoulder with, is an Aussie”. My old man got to know a lot of Aussies in the navy. He said they are the most competitive sportsman you will ever play with. He was spot on. I would have been ten, and I’ve always remembered that piece of advice. For me, playing Australia is the ultimate test. It’s great to win a series at home, but the real icing on the cake is to come to Australia and win here.
HM: Like you did in 86/87.
IB: When we came here, we were told that we were the worst side to play cricket, and one of the headlines read – The only problem with this English cricket team is they can’t bat, bowl or field. We won that by the end of the Melbourne test, and then the following tour back in England in 89’, the Aussies were labelled as the worst team to ever leave Australia. They thumped us! I don’t take a great deal of notice to what the bookies think, but I do believe it’s going to be a tighter series than everyone over here seems to think. When you talk to the ex-players, and I played golf with quite a few of them the other day, they all say you must ignore that. They are worried it’s going to affect the Australian team going in, being told how great they are. It can horribly backfire.
HM: Remarkable to think that there can be a series known simply as “Botham’s Ashes” give your heroics. I know it’s complicated talking about yourself, but it’s hard to believe what you did on the field in 81’.
IB: It was a weird time in England at the time, we needed the win. The main concern was the race riots. The city was on fire, in Saint Pauls, Bristol, Tottenham and Liverpool. The atmosphere was grim, we had the miner strike on top of that, and the country was going through an awful time. We just came along at the right time and turned it around.
HM: You came along …
IB: It’s a team game Hamish! The Headingley game was quite remarkable, because in both games, Australia needed less than 150 to win. We won both those games, Bob Willis took 8-43 at Headingley, and we outplayed them with a collective team effort at Old Trafford. Australia did quite well to get within 100 runs. I will always remember Allan Border in that game, I broke his hand in the first innings, and he came out in the second innings, and I hit him again on the same hand quite early on. I almost felt sorry him. He went on and batted for 300 deliveries, for 130*. That’s when I knew we were going to have some battles, and consequently we have had some great battles over the years.
HM: I reckon AB is the epitome of what your father was talking about, when your backs against the wall, find an Aussie.
IB: Exactly. AB was gutsy, I always admired him for that, and he was bloody good as well.
HM: You mentioned golf. Are you a better golfer, angler or shot?
IB: That’s a very good question. I’m not a bad shot, I love my fishing, and I love my golf. Those are the three things I do now, in my own time that I love, that and watch the grand children play.
HM: You were knighted in 07’ – how much time have you spent with Her Majesty?
IB: Not a lot. I’ve seen her on a few occasions. The Queen spoke to me for 3 minutes when I got my knighthood, which is quite a long time when she’s got 99 people to talk to. She said, “You know cricket’s not my favourite game, but tell me about your charity work”. I gave her a quick three-minute spiel on that, she offers her hand, you bow, and you leave the stage for someone else. She is a remarkable lady, 95 years old, and she’s still active, which is quite amazing. She lost her husband a few months ago, but she’s coped well. There’s been a lot of other stuff for her to cope with and get on with, and she has. In my view she’s one of the most impressive world leaders there has ever been.
HM: I loved watching her at Royal Ascot. She has such an unbelievable interest in the horses.
IB: That’s her passion. We were doing one of the charity walks, and we went through Windsor Park. She watched us from afar and sat on one of her horses. She just watched us go through. It was excellent, such a lift. All the other walkers with me spotted her as well, she was just sat there amongst the trees on her horse. Of all the world leaders over the years, I feel personally that no one has come close to her except for Nelson Mandela.
HM: You mentioned the charity work. It’s extraordinary how your life can take a turn. You were in hospital in Somerset when you made your way through the children’s ward.
IB: I had to go through the children’s ward to get to the physio department. I’d busted my toe in a test match at Leeds, and in those days, you got sent back to your parent club, and they treated you. Nowadays, you’d be left with the English squad for initial treatment. I walked through the ward, and there were four lads at the table playing a board game. I said to the doc, “Are these lads just visiting?” He said, “No, they are very ill. They’ve got leukaemia”. I had no idea what it was. He explained it to me, cancer of the blood. They were very ill, my treatment lasted eight weeks, and by the time I got to the sixth week, all four of them had passed away. I said to the doctor, is there anything I can do to help? He said, “We give the kids a party, a day or two before they pass away”. They are so drugged up by then, on painkillers, so it could be Christmas, their birthday – just a party that means a lot to them. They said they didn’t have any funding left to do them. I funded that for a few years, and by the mid 80s I decided I was going to do a sponsored walk.
HM: Which was a new concept at the time wasn’t it?
IB: Common now, but no one had ever done it not on the scale that I was about to announce. My wife thought I would say something sensible, like Leeds to Liverpool, and I spurted out, “I’m going to do John o’Groats to Land's End”. Problem was that my geography wasn’t great in those days. It’s 400 miles, from John o’Groats to the English Border, then you’ve got another 600 to do! The money that came from that first work was well over one million pounds, and keep in mind this is in 1985!
HM: You’ve raised extraordinary sums since.
IB: We have. John Border, Allan Border’s brother, did the walk with me, and we raised a lot of money which went towards building a research centre outside Glasgow. We’ve done 90 walks, and God knows how much we have raised. It would be more than 25 million pounds now. When we did the first walk, there was a 20% chance of survival for kids with the most common form of leukaemia. We have changed that, and it’s now a 94% chance of kids surviving. That’s a big inroad into a form of cancer. In total, we’ve done about ten and a half thousand miles.
HM: Congratulations. That’s phenomenal. The wine business is also a passion of yours. You’ve done a lot of sampling over the years, now you’re blending and selling. If there was a meteor hurtling towards earth and you had to grab one bottle, which would you be grabbing?
IB: I’ve just brought out Central Otago, a top end pinot noir. I’d go for that. I love pinot, it’s one of my favourite forms of wine. The French call it Burgundy and charge us all ten times more for the privilege, but it’s a pinot for me.
HM: Coming into the summer season, grass is high, snakes are everywhere. You weren’t afraid of any fast bowler in the world. Is it true you are terrified of snakes?
IB: I don’t see any point in being friendly with snakes, personally! It’s a bit like sharks. Once I read about a shark attack for the first time over here at 21 years old, I concluded that the ocean belonged to them, and the land belonged to me. We have come to a mutual agreement. When I go to a house with a pool, or somewhere for a swim in a pool, I check the pool for sharks before I get in!
HM: Seriously?
IB: Bloody oath! Back to snakes, I don’t want a bloody king brown snake biting me either. I avoid them. If the grass is more than three or four inches tall, I’ll leave it.
HM: Lucky you played at some well-manicured grounds.
IB: I’ve seen too many on golf courses!
HM: Given you are colour blind, can you tell the difference between a Red Belly and a King Brown?
IB: If it’s a snake mate … I’m gone! I don’t care what colour, what size, I’m not going to get close enough to check out what colour belly it has!
HM: If you could go back to your favourite moment in cricket?
IB: 86’/87’ … when we came over here and were completely written off. That was one of the great team performances I’ve seen, it was just an amazing tour to be on. Chris Broad got three hundreds in the series, we’d won the series by the Melbourne test, and we won all the one day competitions. By far, the happiest collective team I’ve ever been involved in. It makes me smile thinking about that time. How lucky I’ve been.
HM: Wonderful to have you out here, privileged to speak with you. Thanks for your time and enjoy the summer.
IB: No worries, Hamish.
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