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Who's the greatest all-rounder?

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 25/04/2009

Pub bores the length and breadth of England will tell you that Sir Ian Botham is the greatest all-rounder ever to grace the sport of cricket, but have they really got their facts right?

Undoubtedly the England great has a rock-solid case for the defence, having been the inspiration behind so many triumphs and how many players have an entire series named after them?

Botham's Ashes in 1981 remain the high point of the game in England, with Beefy, aided by Bob Willis, have launched a comeback to match that of Lazarus and upset the crifcket betting odds.

Both made almost 400 runs and took 34 wickets in that six-match series, with his unbeaten 149 in the second innings of the third Test at Headingley marking the moment that England turned the series on its head.

Of course there were so many other days in the sun for Botham, with his illustrious career eventually yielding over 5,000 runs and 383 wickets from 102 Test matches.

Amazingly many would doubt whether Botham was even the greatest all-rounder of his generation, with Pakistan's Imran Khan and India's Kapil Dev having many supporters around the world.

Imran was undeniably a more destructive fast bowler than Botham on his day, while his leadership of Pakistan to glory at the 1992 World Cup also gave him another one up on the Englishman.

However, a mere six Test centuries show that Imran didn't have the consistency of Botham, who recorded 14 Test tons. It is a similar story with Kapil Dev, who scored eight hundreds in 131 Tests.

New Zealand's Sir Richard Hadlee was around at exactly the same time, but his flaky batting means that he cannot be considered in the same bracket, despite his almost peerless mastery of swing and seam bowling at pace.

It that's not enough to convince you of Botham's greatness, he also snared 120 catches during his Test career, many of them taken from an impossibly close position at second slip.

He truly had it all and even managed to get into trouble off the field and raise millions for charity as well!

His closest rival for the title of the greatest all-rounder of all-time lies a little further back in time in the Caribbean.

Sir Garfield Sobers of the West Indies is the man who blazed the trail that all future all-rounders would follow.

A dazzling left-hand batsman, Sobers was also an outstanding slip and cover fielder himself and could master all variations of left-arm bowling.

Pace or spin, it mattered little to Sobers as he had it all, taking well over 200 Test wickets during his career.

However, it is the shear brilliance of his batting which gives Sobers a just claim to be the better of Botham.

The England great averaged 33.54 at the end of his Test career, Sobers averaged a massive 57.78 and set a new test world record of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958.

What is even more remarkable was that that innings was Sobers' first century of the international stage.

If ever there was a man to put Botham in the shade, Sobers was that man.

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