one post and its a great Dig
welcome mate
Its a great dig maybe but there are some other points of view.
Imran's overall career records as a bowler and as a batsman do appear to say something in his favour but when you look closely you see a different Picture. Before I go further, I prefer to clarify that Kapil and Hadlee are not in the picture. certainly not Hadlee. Its mostly about Imran and Botham.
Having seen Imran from close quarters throughout his career I can easily see two distinct phases in his game. After the first short spell as a difficult (in every rspect) tearaway fast bowler he settled down to bowl as only an all time great would. Watching him bowl ata time when one was active playing grade cricket, one womdered whether there was any way to play this fantastic bowler. He looked completely unplayable. Imran during his best bwoling years was way way ahead of competition.
The problem is that during this period he was just a useful lower middle order batsman. It is impossible for me to close my eyes and look back at that time and discover a batsman in Imran who could have played for Pakistan (or any other international side then) as a pure batsman. He never looked that much of a batsman.
Later as a captain and as his bowling declined he took his batting very seriously and became one of the more difficult batsmen in Pakistan to dislodge. I would even offer that at this stage of his career his major claim to a place in the Pakistani side was a the best captain they ever had and as a very useful and fighting middle order batsman who also bowled. This continued till the end of his career. I dont see much of an over lapping period between these two Imrans. On top of that he was always a safe but never brilliant fielder.
Botham on the other hand started his career as someone who could do anything and everything on the cricket field. In his first quarter to one third of his career he challenged anyone to the title of the games best all rounder ever. Sobers included. He was a superb hard hitting batsman who played all the strokes with a clean swing of the arms and with a technique which would dissappoint few puritans. He bowled with vigour and pace, had a great out swinger, and could bowl bouncers and bring the occasional ball in to great effect. To top it all he was one of the world's leading close in fielders. During this phase Botham could have played for any international side for his batting or bowling alone.
His decline once it came is what made this debate what it has become. No one thought at that time, when he was conquering all, that there was any.
So we can take our pick on how to assess two players.
when it only needs one reply.
