Beefy still the man

Yes, he can be massively annoying in the commentary box and yes he may have become everything he used to despise (ie he is now one of the "in-my-day" brigade) but Ian Botham is still the one for England cricket fans. Ask the majority of them who their favourite all-time player is, they will probably say Botham; ask them who they most listen to in Sky's commentary team or whose column they still read in the newspapers, they probably say Botham and ask who they'd most like to go for drink with and they will probably - at a pinch - say Botham.

And even if he is one of the in-my-day brigade, at the very least, he has the performances to back it up. Have any of the other allrounders every produced with bat and ball in the same match as often and to such devastating effect? Ok, so he should have retired in 87, but the sight of him running though the Australia middle-order one last time (and then bashing them for 50 with the bat) at the 1992 World Cup was a memory to treasure.

No cricketer has ever been able to connect with his country's supporters like Beefy and in this era when the word 'great' is bandied about left, right and centre he is the one who, in allround cricketing terms, actually defines the term.