Ian Botham 118 v Australia (Old Trafford 1981)

CRICKET IS FUCKING GAY.

Botham the greatest - a one off - just love him smashing Lillee out of the ground _ I scored this myself as a ten yr old

No helmet!

its all about afridi

fuck flintoff and co

Remember this series so well. The call would go out "Bothams batting!" Drop everything and gather round the TV. Certainly in my life-time Beefy is the best allrounder. Broad is only young but showing immense promise.

Botham's acceleration of the bat through the ball is incredible, explosive hitting.

Flintoff is good but Beefy was in a different class. And, wowbagger, the reason Botham took a lot of wickets was because he swung the ball and was very intelligent. Just having pace is not enough!

Botham was absolutely marvellous, but it always amazed me that he got the wickets he did. His test record was much more impressive than his county record.

The guy who said that Flintoff wasn't fit to lace Botham's boots was most unfair to Freddie. Flintoff is a much faster, more hostile and dangerous bowler than Botham ever was. Great cricketers both: Botham has the edge because of his outrageous success in 1981 but it was Brearley, the greatest post-war captain, who got the best out of Botham.

The current England team should all watch this video and the Bob WIllis 8-34 video. Whilst it was an amazing (tail end) performance to draw the 1st Ashes Test of 2009, we need this kind of attitude shown here in order to win vs Australia. Please Note: he is not wearing a helmet facing Lillee. Honestly if you watched this live on TV you already know just how incredibly amazing Botham was in 1981. Seriously the entire English team need to watch this video and Bob's 8-34.

I beg to differ, attempting to copy such performances would be dangerouse, it takes huge talent and buckets of luck, the people involved admitted that they where one-offs. What England need now is discipline in batting and controled bowling, which they started to do at Lord¨s yesterday.