The case for another Botham biography
Simon Wilde, cricket correspondent for the Sunday Times , explains why it was worthwhile to write a new biography of Ian Botham, hardly the most underwritten of cricketers.
Daniel Brettig
25-Feb-2013
Simon Wilde, cricket correspondent for the Sunday Times, explains why it was worthwhile to write a new biography of Ian Botham, hardly the most underwritten of cricketers.
Botham's life may have been often chronicled, but not always well. I found myself constantly surprised by fresh details: from the great-great-grandfather named Chappell, to his grandparents being married a short walk from the ground where he would play his first match for England; from him picking a drinking mate for a Sunday league match against Glamorgan, to him having a Mickey Mouse phone in his bedroom; from the chambermaid delivering a breakfast of two pints of milk and the racing papers, to the steps he took to leave Somerset before the trouble over Viv Richards and Joel Garner ever arose.
Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here