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'Greed is killing the game'
Ian Botham hits out at the proliferation of Twenty20, the idiots who booed Ponting, and all the talk of pressure
Interview by Sam Pilger
November 23, 2009
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Can you see any sporting heroes in the current England team?
Well, my new book is about the 50 greatest sportsmen from Britain and Ireland that I have ever seen and there are none of them in the current England side.
Can England become the best Test team in the world?
Never mind about getting to No. 1, we're No. 5 at the moment. Let's move up a few places first. They are nowhere near being the best Test side in the world at present. In South Africa, if England have the right bowlers and they are all fit, and the batsmen turn up, and the top five and six all fire, then we have a chance.
Our batsmen don't make enough runs. In the Ashes, Andrew Strauss carried the batting until Jonathan Trott turned up at The Oval.
How would you assess Strauss's first year as captain?
What he has done best is get better with the bat. He will learn to be a better captain, too, and I just hope he doesn't get too negative. England were too defensive in the West Indies earlier in the year, and we were only slightly better against Australia. Strauss needs to have confidence in his players to be aggressive. He can't be bold if the rest of the team don't play. I don't think he is absolutely confident that he can set them challenges.
Is there any truth in Justin Langer's opinions about England players?
This is the same Australian and English bull**** that has been going on for centuries. I don't really care what Justin Langer thinks.
Does England have enough young talent coming through the ranks?
The problem with these kids is that they don't play enough. I know everyone whinges about the amount
of international cricket, but if you don't play it and you're not actually in the team, you don't play a lot of cricket. Some of these guys would do a lot better to learn their skills and trade. I am all for central contracts, but under Duncan Fletcher they were abused. These days county cricketers play a lot more than international players and yet England players talk about pressure. What pressure? Pressure makes kettles whistle. If you don't like pressure, do another job. Pressure is where you should want to be. You should want to be in the intensity and the fire.
| "Twenty20 has its place but not on the international stage. It is a domestic and franchise sport. I don't want to see the best players in the world standing there and slogging. Twenty20 is bastardising the game" | |||
Has losing the captaincy changed Kevin Pietersen?
Kevin is fine; he is bigger than that. He doesn't have any lessons to learn from it because none of it was his doing. He was quite rightly hurt and puzzled by what happened. It was the poorest piece of man-management I have seen in my entire professional sporting career... it was a total cock-up. KP is a very ambitious man. He wants to be the best at everything he does. It wouldn't surprise me if Kevin became England captain in two or three years' time.
What does the future hold for Australia in the wake of losing the Ashes?
I don't care about the Australians. They aren't my problem. All I hope is that we hammer them every single
time we play them. Ricky Ponting will be wondering what happened in the Ashes. They scored eight centuries to England's two and they had the top four wicket-takers, but England won two or three important sessions and with that the Ashes. Ponting will be so frustrated and annoyed. The people in the England crowd who booed him when he walked to the wicket are idiots. That really annoyed me. It was no way to treat one of the game's greatest players.
Do you agree with MCC that Test cricket could be dying?
It didn't look like it was dying this summer with the Ashes, did it? They are playing too much Twenty20 right now. We have just had a Twenty20 World Cup and within a year we're going to have another in the Caribbean. It is greed, greed, greed. That is what will kill the game, the greed of the authorities. Twenty20 has its place but not on the international stage. It is a domestic and franchise sport. I don't want to see the best players in the world standing there and slogging. Twenty20 is bastardising the game.
If you were ECB chairman what would you do on your first day?
There would be a hell of a lot of people looking for other jobs.
This article was first published in the December 2009 issue of the Wisden Cricketer. Subscribe here
© The Wisden Cricketer
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Play more tests, fewer 50 over games, and abandon T20 altogether. Expecting shorter versions to popularise cricket is a bit like expecting Pizza Hut to popularise Italian cuisine. It will not happen. Test cricket will survive only if more test cricket fans watch it and support it. And for that it must be played more than any other form. Simple.
Posted by nafzak on (November 24 2009, 02:57 AM GMT)How refreshing! He's absolutely right about T20. Too much of it and it does not belong on the international stage. And how about playing a max of 5 ODI's on any tour. Beefy is still the man... for sure!!
Posted by nafzak on (November 24 2009, 02:57 AM GMT)How refreshing! He's absolutely right about T20. Too much of it and it does not belong on the international stage. And how about playing a max of 5 ODI's on any tour. Beefy is still the man... for sure!!
Posted by aveesachin10 on (November 24 2009, 01:55 AM GMT)I absolutely agree with Sir Ian Botham's point of view on the T-20 version of the game. Its definitely a sport for the franchise. Its all about greed.The world is growing, technology is growing and well i would say the people's greed is growing to. Well nothing can beat TEST CRICKET. Its ultimate format of the game and will always be. ODI's is always there , but test cricket will always live on. It really tests the mental and physical character in one's ability. Whereas talking about the "Big Money game" that is the T-20....of cus we all love cricket and me being a cricket fanatic do love all the formats of the game. But they should cut down on the T-20's and bring the traditional tests. Play atleast 3 test matches if not five. Theres no point in playing just 2 test matches and end up playing only 1 test match in a calendar year. TEST CRICKET WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED....!!!!
Posted by Woody111 on (November 24 2009, 01:33 AM GMT)Well said Beefy; maybe a little rough around the edges but fair play all the same. It's a strange paradox that so many players continue with the mantra that test cricket is the pinnacle but administrators continue to schedule meaningless limited over matches and series. 20/20 and 50 over cricket should be an adjunct to test series - not series in themselves. While the recent ODI matches in India will lead to administrators saying 'we told you so' it comes at a cost. We'll see soon if Aus and India have their first choice 11s for home test series as a result of injuries. If I were state teams I'd be furious that star players were sent to India and came home with strains and sprains. All because of hit and giggle rubbish.
Posted by Clyde on (November 24 2009, 00:17 AM GMT)The next thing you know they will be allowed to put the ball on a tee before they hit it. They already arrange the fielders in positions where they can't reach the ball. The twenty-overs-a-side game is a new genre that you would take an interest in only if you did not know Test cricket. One-day is like school cricket played by grown-ups. The new bats have altered Test cricket considerably. To restore the balance in Test cricket you just need to start the game with a hard pitch with more grass on it. Golf TV follows the ball through the air, and now so does cricket TV, and there are those who enjoy this, but there are I dare say a lot of others, like me, who find it tedious - and it is never more tedious than when you have just watched a Test match.
Posted by vmanie on (November 23 2009, 15:51 PM GMT)I respect Ian's skills and achievements but I disagree with his views on many things. For instance he opposes his own argument that players should face pressure and be in the middle of intensity and fire. So anyone who knowns cricket formats would know well where the real pressure/intensity/fire is in T20 or 5 day? Each format has its own opportunity to learn. In Test cricket you should know best to play multitude of shots to survive. In T20 you should know all those shots to be transform them to runs/boundaries to keep score ticking. Greed etc...are spoken by those who cannot make money. If the fans dont like T20 where can all the money come from? Does it mean to say fans are greedy? Love each form of cricket. If you cannot support being part of it move on and dont complain Sir.
Posted by daager on (November 23 2009, 13:54 PM GMT)So nice and refreshing to read such blunt opinions, cricket and world sport need more of em. Well done Botham. I dont agree about 20/20 though, although I am not a big fan its generating big revenue and surely that is good for the game. Unfortunately though there is too much of it due to greed. I would pefer 2 20/20 games at the start of a test series, 3 ODIs max, and maybe a 20/20 world cup every 4 years. That would surely be sufficient for fans of the slog fest.
Posted by k1sat on (November 23 2009, 10:40 AM GMT)SIR beefy is bang on target...i thnk T20 is great as a form of cricket + entertainment...as an indian i can tell u how large the IPL has been here....but T20 should be left there....it shouldnt be played at the national level,where tests and ODI's should be given importance....ths even UP's the value of T20 at the franchisee level....both the jobs get done....players make good money...and even the mainframe form of cricket survives.....
Posted by danmcb on (November 23 2009, 09:14 AM GMT)excellent! Beefy is still smacking it out of the ground :-)