Edgbaston Legends - Sir Ian Botham

Edgbaston Legends - Sir Ian Botham

Sir Ian Botham produced an inspired performance as England beat Australia at Edgbaston in 1981

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Sir Ian Botham is one of England's most iconic and well-known cricketers. In a career from 1973 to 1993, he played 102 Tests and 116 One-Day Internationals for his country and was a world-class all-rounder.

The sport was blessed in the 1980s with Botham, Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan all laying claim to be the world’s best all-round cricketer but many would rate Botham as the number one as his exploits on the field are still talked about today.

His remarkable innings of 149 not out with England in a desperate position in the 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley helped set up one of the greatest comebacks of all time.

But two weeks later at Edgbaston, Botham was at it again, producing an outstanding spell of five wickets for one run to bowl England to a 29-run win.

Set a modest target of 151 to win and go 2-1 up in the series, Australia were in reasonable shape at 105 for five, when Allan Border was dismissed by John Emburey.

However, Botham then bowled one of the most incisive spells ever seen at the ground, bowling Rod Marsh, trapping Ray Bright in front, having Dennis Lillee caught behind, and then finishing things off in style by breaking through the defences of both Martin Kent and Terry Alderman, bowling them too.

Australia were dismissed for 121, losing their last five wickets for just seven runs and England went on to win at Old Trafford to claim the series – now so often referred to a ‘Botham’s Ashes’ - 3-1.

In all, Botham scored 5,200 Test runs and took 383 wickets, helped England reach the finals of the 1979, 1987 and 1992 World Cups, played county cricket for Durham, Somerset and Worcestershire while his all-round sporting skills were also good enough to see him play football for both Scunthorpe United and Yeovil Town.

His record of 12 Test man-of-the-match awards puts him clear of any other English player and no English bowler has taken more Test wickets than him.

He was awarded the OBE in 1992 and knighted in 2007 for services to cricket and his charity work, in which he has been instrumental in highlighting the plight of children with leukaemia and raising money to fund research and treatment of the disease.