subshakerz
International Coach
Except against the West Indies. Sorry, but all the Botham supporters seem to treat his failure against the West Indies, even at his peak, with both bat and ball as a non-issue. 14 tons and not one against the West Indies? And let's not talk of his bowling. It's a clear difference between him and Imran. It's also a big dent in his standing to me.Botham touched heights I don't think any allrounder has managed to. But Imran Khan was gloriously consistent with the ball, sometimes simply brilliant, and was dependable as a batsman, particularly towards the end of his career. His bowling perhaps tailed off towards the very fag end of his career, but was still better than Botham's by a country mile and half. Botham was an underperformer since 1986 and managed to cling on for about 7 years. Also Botham the bowler was 5-6 good years overall and was largely **** for the rest of his career.
Between players of roughly the same caliber (though I think Imran is notably better) if one has succeeded against the best opposition available and the other failed, will go with the former.