Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game's one true living legend and his story both on and off the pitch reads like a Boy's Own rollercoaster ride.
A completely revised and updated edition of the bestselling autobiography of cricketing legend Ian Botham, including his first-hand insight into the 1999/2000 winter tour to South Africa. Ian Botham's bestselling autobiography is an intriguing cocktail of sex and drugs allegations, personal upheavals, confrontations with his peers, and remarkable achievements both on and off the field. From his heroic deeds against the Aussies art Headingly in 1981 through to the dark clouds surrounding the court case with Imran Khan, from battling in the mud for Scunthorpe United FC to walking half the length of the country for Leukaemia Research, it's all here in this unforgettable story of a truly larger-than-life character. In an extra chapter for this revised edition, Botham digs deep to unravel the reasons behind the sorry state of English cricket, and provides a compulsive insight into the 1999/2000 winter tour to South Africa where England attempt to recover from a traumatic year under the new leadership of Nasser Hussain.
Focusing on the essence of true sporting heroes, Sir Ian Botham identifies ten key qualities such as bravery, passion, and leadership that define greatness in sports. He illustrates these traits through personal anecdotes and highlights renowned athletes, including Ian Woosnam and Lewis Hamilton, who embody each quality. Spanning various sports and eras, this work offers an engaging exploration of what constitutes a sporting legend, informed by Botham's extensive experience in the field.
In 'My Autobiography', Aussie leg-spin maestro Shane Warne, perhaps the outstanding cricketer of his generation - and one of the most consistently newsworthy characters in sport - takes stock of a phenomenally successful career, and gives his account of the scandals and controversies that have sent the media into spasms of delighted indignation. From his days as a frustrated teenage wannabe Aussie Rules star, who decided he might as well try his hand at cricket, Warne has almost single-handedly taken the gentle, studious art of spin-bowling and turned it into a thrilling gladiatorial spectacle - on the way gathering career stats that rank him in company with the game's all-time elite. Warne crashed into the world spotlight in 1993, when his first-ever ball in Ashes cricket made seasoned England star Mike Gatting look like a floundering buffoon: 'In the second or so it took to leave my hand, swerve to pitch outside leg stump, fizz past the batsmen's lunge forward and clip off stump, my life did change ... Ian Botham said he hadn't seen the same look of wide-eyed horror on Gatting's face since somebody had stolen his lunch a few years before.' And he has hardly looked back since - on the pitch at least. Outside the boundary rope it has been a different, though no less sensational story. The media has revelled in tales of extra-marital phone-sex, match-fixing controversies, and bust-ups with the game's authorities and fellow professionals -sparking endless nonsensical speculation as to whether this hard-drinking, smoking "yobbo" was too fat, too loud, too arrogant or just plain too much for cricket to take. This is a candid chronicle of his side of the story, and along the way there are some wonderful revelations about the mysteries of spin-bowling, the professional art of "sledging", and a fascinating insider account of Australia's rise to world dominance. A frank observer of others; an insightful assessor of his own achievements and motivations - and rarely descending into bland PR-consciousness - The King Of Spin has once again confounded all expectations and served up a peach. - Alex Hankin