Botham wins BBC's Lifetime Achievement award

XIan Botham poses with his Lifetime Achievement award © Getty Images

Ian Botham was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award at the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year show in London on Sunday.

Botham, who was Personality of the Year in 1981, was recognised for his feats on the field as well as his fundraising off it. "It's quite a shock," he admitted, "but it's wonderful because it's not just for the cricket but for the charity work. When you look down the list of BBC Sports Personality winners, it is a great honour to be included among them and now this lifetime achievement award is the icing on the cake."

Botham was one of the game's great allrounders, taking 383 wickets and scoring 5200 runs in 102 Tests between 1977 and 1992. In all, he took 1172 first-class wickets and scored almost 20,000 runs.

Although he retired in 1993, he has remained a high-profile figure. He was for some time a team captain on BBC's Question of Sport, remains the face of Shredded Wheat on TV, and is a popular commentator for Sky. He has also raised more than £7 million of leukaemia research with a series of charity walks, the first from John O'Groats to Lands End in 1985. He then followed in Hannibal's footsteps by walking across the Alps with a herd of elephants.

"These days I'm really enjoying the broadcasting," he admitted. "The first five years I was telling everyone England were good and they were awful, but we've made fantastic progress over the last couple of years. If we continue to make that progress, we can beat anyone. Bring on Australia!"

Andrew Flintoff came third in the vote for the main Personality of the Year, behind athlete Kelly Holmes and rower Matthew Pinsent.