Product Description

Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game's one true living legend and his story both on and off the pitch reads like a Boy's Own rollercoaster ride. Born with a natural genius for the game, Botham began breaking records with bat and ball from a young age and soon became the man English cricket expected most from. After a troubled period as captain, Botham rose once again to become a national hero with his display in the Miracle Ashes of 1981. But, with his confrontational nature and wild streak, he began regularly making the wrong kind of headlines. With accusations of drink and drugs, affairs and ball-tampering, he became hounded by the tabloid pack, never sure whether they wanted him to triumph or implode. Now a Knight and just as famous for his tireless charity work, Beefy gives us the definitive story of his never-dull life and times in his own no-nonsense words.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12168 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
Sir Ian Botham started his first-class career in 1974 with Somerset, leaving in protest at the sacking of his friend Viv Richards. He then played for Worcester (1986-91), Queensland (1988) and Durham (1992-3). He made his debut for England in 1977 and played 102 tests, including 12 as captain in 1980-81. Since retiring as a player, he has become a cricket broadcaster for Sky Sports and has set out on a number of long-distance fundraising charity walks. He has raised more than GBP5,000,000 for Leukaemia Research and was Knighted in recognition of his good work in 2007. When not touring the world commentating, he lives with his wife Kath in Yorkshire.

Customer Reviews

A man more sinned against tham sinning?
Graham Gooch apparently once asked Ian Botham who wrote his scripts and that was a question I was not able to shake off throughout this book. The style is so accomplished and measured that it is difficult to believe that the authorial voice is echt Botham.

That caveat aside, this is an always interesting and perceptive insight into the man's life and times; I don't think there is a great deal here which is not already known, but the tone adds a sense of authenticity, suggesting this is the real story.

Like the best heroes, Botham had feet of clay and there are times when he descends into sentimental self-pity; generally, however, the book is positive and forward-looking. As another reviewer has said, there are passages where more detail would have been interesting, but all in all this is a very good value insight into the lot of a genuine modern sporting hero.

A beefy tale from Sir Ian
The updated tale of Sir Ian Botham OBE, England's beefiest ever cricketer, is a good read - an open, revealing and well written "autobiography". Unlike Botham's previous foray into the genre, "Don't tell Kath", no ghost is credited - the publishers say only that Botham had "editorial assistance"- but it is difficult to believe that there was one skilled writer who had a firmly guiding hand on the text. Whoever that was has done an excellent job.

In 1983 Botham was having a lean spell and some in the media were calling for him to be dropped. At a press conference England captain Bob Willis responded to these calls by asking "Which two players do you gentlemen suggest we should bring in to replace him?" This sums up the unique feature of Botham's game - he was one of the few international cricketers who could have been chosen either as a specialist batsman or as a specialist bowler - but as an all-rounder he was irreplaceable. His fame and his devil-may-care personality always made Botham a target and anyone who thinks that the "feral media" is a modern phenomenon should turn to Both's accounts of how he was first pursued by them more than twenty years ago. True he brought some of the problems on himself - a fact that he honestly acknowledges - but he was certainly hounded and shabbily treated at times.

Writing about his long stint as a Sky commentator Sir Ian says "I'm simply stating things as I see them" - and that neatly describes the whole book. There are heroes (Viv Richards, John Arlott and his long-suffering wife Kath...) and villains (Ian Chappell, Imran Khan, Ted Dexter, Peter Roebuck...) and Both is not a forgiving man when aggrieved. But he is passionately loyal to his friends and his work for Leukaemia research reveals that deep down his heart is perhaps his beefiest organ of all.

Botham is perceptive on some of the ills of modern cricket - and especially England cricket. Here he is on England in Australia for example:

"We looked like schoolboys playing against the world's best, never more so than on that last morning in Adelaide. What was going on in that dressing room? What on earth had been said, so that when the English batsmen came out they scored just 30-odd runs in the whole of the thirty-over morning session? What were they thinking? But it wasn't just in Adelaide. Every single pressure session was lost right through the series. Whenever the pressure was on, the Australians came to the party and the England players stayed at home. I can't think of a single crucial passage of play where we came out ahead. Many of the same players were on the winning side against Australia sixteen months previously, but Australia learned lessons from that and England did not."

Spot on! And it's difficult to disagree with Botham's diagnosis of (one) of the causes of the problems either:

"I counted twenty-five people wearing England shirts out in the middle before the start of one Test - who the hell were they all? As well as the players, the coach and the physio, England had a batting coach, a bowling coach, security men, flunkeys of one sort and another, a dietician to tell them what to eat and even a team psych¬ologist to motivate them. Since when did you need a psychologist to play cricket? I never took any notice of those idiots - how many overs have they ever bowled? From the results the team achieved, the psychologist obviously did a great job."

Both is no fool, but like Shane Warne who in some ways he resembles, he can sometimes be a fool to himself. When truly great cricketers like Warne or Botham speak the current crop of players and administrators would do well to listen. But will they? Don't hold your breath!

Where's the detail?
A very good Autobiography but only receives 3 stars. Why? It's simple really, for someone who has led such a full life as Botham admits, the book at under 300 pages is actually quite a light (if not enjoyable) read.

Very little is covered in detail and indeed for much of the book, you start reading about an event in his life and before you know it, you are on to the next bit.

Overall, the book resembles much of Botham's life: unable to sit still and everything done in a hurry! A real shame as he is a top man and boy, what he has done for charity...