“It was the summer of summers for England,” said cricket commentator Richie Benaud of the 1981 “Botham’s Ashes” series against Australia.
“It was the summer of summers for England,” said cricket commentator Richie Benaud of the 1981 “Botham’s Ashes” series against Australia.
Rarely has cricket, and in particular one player, captured English hearts so emphatically.
The summer’s gloomy start made for its fairytale ending.
Ian Botham returned home exhausted and unsure of his future as captain.
His appointment on a match-to-match basis merely heaped on the pressure.
England lost the first Test at Trent Bridge by six wickets and drew the second at Lords.
It was Botham’s final match as captain.
When Australian spinner Ray Bright bowled him around his legs to complete a pair of ducks, he returned to the pavilion in near silence.
At the end of the match Botham announced he was stepping down and suggested Mike Brearley replace him.
The Middlesex captain was duly installed.
The hope was that Botham, England’s greatest ever all-rounder, would return to form once unburdened of leadership duties.
Brearley’s genius for man management - he is now a psychoanalyst - brought out the best in “Beefy” Botham, who began to show signs of his old self.
He took six wickets for 95 in Australia’s first innings 401 at Headingley, then smashed 50 in England’s paltry reply of 174.
Australia enforced the follow-on.
Requiring 222 to avoid an innings defeat, England were given odds of 500-1 to win the match.
When they collapsed again to 135 for 7, it was as good as over.
Botham was joined at the crease by tailender Graham Dilley, and suggested they “give it a whack and see what happens”.
In just over an hour they blazed a 100 partnership.
Dilley departed for 56, but Botham continued peppering all corners of the ground with fours and sixes.
“That’s gone straight into the confectionary stall and out again,” Benaud told BBC TV viewers.
Botham’s pyrotechnics gave England a lead of 130 and a sniff of the most improbable victory.
The next morning England fast bowler Bob Willis ran in like a man possessed, taking wicket after wicket to post career best figures of 8 for 43.
Australia were skittled for 111. “It is one of the most fantastic victories ever known in Test cricket history,” said the astonished Benaud, a former Australian captain.
The defeat did lasting damage to the Australians, who were for years vulnerable chasing small targets.
Botham repeated his magic in the next Test at Edgbaston.
By the fourth day Australia needed 151 to win and were edging their way towards their target at 105 for 5.
Botham seized the ball and in front of a delirious crowd took 5 wickets for 1 run off 28 deliveries.
With Terry Alderman clean bowled and Australia all out for 121, Botham raised a stump in triumph and charged off the pitch before the joyous crowd could engulf him.
Botham was still not done. On the Saturday afternoon of the fifth Test at Old Trafford, he strode to the crease with England on a precarious 104 for 5.
Just 86 balls later he had smashed another glorious hundred, which the commentator Jim Laker described as “the most spectacular Test match hundred I have ever seen”.
The Aussies were vanquished 3-1, and Botham’s hero status was secure forever. It took 26 years – and millions of pounds raised for charity – before “Beefy” was knighted.
But there are those who would have handed it to him there and then, in the late summer of 1981.
