ENTERTAINERS

Ian Botham

If not the best-ever all-rounder, Ian Botham is certainly the greatest match winner.

Nothing spurred him on more than a Test against the old enemy, Australia. His 1977 debut was a case in point. He caught the first wicket to fall before claiming the first of five victims with the ball, Aussie captain Greg Chappell.

He proved a thorn in the sides of successive Australian skippers, dismissing both Kim Hughes and Allan Border a dozen times.

And there was also Botham's batting. Two of his four Ashes centuries came in 1981, when he was at his peak. Having resigned from the England captaincy after bagging a pair at Lord’s, Botham turned the tide of the Headingley Test and, in turn, the series.

He was a captain's dream with bat and ball as well as being a towering presence in the slips, taking 57 of 120 Test catches against Australia.