Leading ODI Wicket takers .

[aussie_beater]

Chappells opinions are never biased in any way, God forbid he just doesn't like the guy.

Wasn't there some sort of bar brawl between Ian Chappel and Beefy in Melbourne sometime in the seventies ?

 

[Wazztodd]

Yeah, I heard something along those lines. Certainly they have a reasonably deep animosity toward each other. I'm pretty sure it's not a Poms vs Aussies thing either, as Botham generally had a pretty good relationship with most Australian players he played against as far as I know. Even Dennis lillee, a "spikey" character to say the least got on famously with Botham. "We've gotta make this guy an honorary Aussie" or words to that effect.

 

[royGilchrist]

Botham's flamboyant lifestyle??

What is that referring to, going to the pub everyday and drinking yourself silly?

Wazza, that performance against Aus was legendary, but we cannot base a player's position among the greatest on just one performance. If thats the case then Bob Massie, and Nirandara Hirwani might be among the top ten bowlers of all time.

I think Botham and Kapil were reasonably close as all rounders, Kapil was a better bowler and Botham a better batsman (but definetely did nto do justice to his enormous batting talent).

As much as I respect Ian Chappell's opinion, he is a little biased in his opinion about Botham, due to the brawl they had, which is well documented I think, Top_Cat might enlighten us further on that.

 

[aussie_beater]

I know Chappel said something like "Botham only knows how to roll a spliff'' or something to that effect a few years ago during one of the Ashes in Australia.

 

[sasnoz]

botham was the power word and chappel and mark were commentating and ian made his thoughts heard

 

[Wazztodd]

Yeah, I was just being sarcastic about him being rated "crap". There's many other peformances from Botham that won or significantly contributed to winning games, unlike Massie, who really was a "one-test wonder". I have Beefy just ahead of Kapil, but only as a personal opinion, simply because I got to see a lot more of him live, and those peformances stick in the mind, I guess. It's all subjective really, both great players.

Imran still above them both though.

 

[Rik]

Botham's flamboyant lifestyle??

What is that referring to, going to the pub everyday and drinking yourself silly?

Yes mate it does, and I know from experiance that drinking does not help you do any better. It does help you be stupidly confident against the fastest bowler in the county and slog him for a massive 6...with your eyes closed though

 

[Rik]

Yeah, I was just being sarcastic about him being rated "crap". There's many other peformances from Botham that won or significantly contributed to winning games, unlike Massie, who really was a "one-test wonder". I have Beefy just ahead of Kapil, but only as a personal opinion, simply because I got to see a lot more of him live, and those peformances stick in the mind, I guess. It's all subjective really, both great players.

Imran still above them both though.

The strange thing with Imran is that if you take the games he played as captain out then you get a very average All-Rounder, but if you just take the matches he was captain in...you get possibly the world's greatest all-rounder averaging 52 with the bat and 20 with the ball in Tests :O

 

[Bazza]

Players who become captains tend to display one of two trends. I would say (ball park figure here) 90% see their personal performances suffer, at least for a period. 10% Stand up to be counted, inspirationally leading their country single handedly. Imran would appear to be one of those.