Advent 19

A few very special sportsmen break out of the confines of their sport. They become part of the spiritual furniture of society. It was true of Babe Ruth and for an Englishman it is true of Ian Botham. Botham on the cricket field was, at his best, utterly compelling, an irresistible force of nature. In particular he seemed to have been put on the earth to humiliate Australians.

I was away working in America for the summer of 1981 and therefore encountered the heroics of that fabled season at several steps removed. JRS and my father would send me press cuttings and I would read them out loud to my fellow British camp counsellors. The mere statistics of his career are impressive but tell only a portion of the tale. When the mood was upon him Botham could move mountains. Modern attempts to equate the admirable Andrew Flintoff with Botham are I'm afraid off the mark. Flintoff was intermittently very good; Botham often and belligerently refused to lose, in fact choosing to win all on his own. There is a difference and you need to have seen it to understand it. The best English cricketer I have watched and certainly the most charismatic.