Egg-fearing cricketing maverick is furious at carefully sourced report’s findings. Has he made his Durham position untenable?“When I open a hard-boiled egg and I take the first mouthful and I think, what’s that, and then the second mouthful – there’s half an embryo in it. Well, excuse me but I find that a little bit revolting.” And quite right too. Finally someone has had the guts to say it. Embryo egg bites, imposed on everyday country people by the postcode weekenders of the London wokelite. Wake up sheeple. And when you’ve finally woken up, please buy my bespoke Beefy-blockchain NFTs.Ian Botham’s appearance on the youth TV show Open To Question in 1986 has already passed into internet legend, long before...
In the era of Richards, Botham, Fletcher and Gooch, football had yet to swamp cricket and humour pervaded the rivalry The two best teams in county cricket battled for the Bob Willis Trophy at Lord’s. Despite the absence of spectators it was an earnest, engaging contest and a curious throwback to four decades ago when Essex and Somerset were also two of the best and most entertaining sides in the country.This is not so surprising if you recall some of the personnel: the trinity of Viv Richards, Ian Botham and Joel Garner at Somerset and Keith Fletcher, Graham Gooch and John Lever at Essex were instantly recognised on TV screens against a backdrop of packed stands at Chelmsford or Taunton....
England all-rounder showed such discipline in compiling his 176 at Old Trafford and that willingness to learn and improve should see him scale yet more heights for his country Many more innings like the one he scored here and there must be a peerage around the corner for Ben Stokes, though I’ve not yet ascertained where he stands on Brexit, which is obviously crucial. It is 13 years since we learned that Ian Botham was to be knighted and I recall being asked to cast aside my astonishment – and delight – for a moment to pen a swift profile for the Observer. This time no profile is required; not that much has changed for Sir Ian since 2007 but...
Former England Test bowler’s eye-popping and hilarious account of cricket in the 80s is as doused as a sherry trifleThe Spin this week is a book review of sorts but one that coincides with an anniversary too, being as it is a year to the day since England’s male cricketers were given a midnight curfew that has been in place ever since.It was 27 November 2017, the last rites of an opening defeat in the Ashes at the Gabba, when Andrew Strauss, then director of England cricket, felt moved to act in response to overnight reports of Jonny Bairstow having “head-butted” Australia’s Cameron Bancroft at a Perth nightspot four weeks earlier. Related: England 3-0 Sri Lanka: player ratings for the...
Allegations surrounding the lost Test at Christchurch in 1984 saw the expedition dubbed the ‘sex and drugs and rock’n’roll tour’ – and they tell me I was on itCricket seldom makes the front pages with a good news story. That may have happened in 1953, 1981 and 2005 but the bad news finds its way there more frequently, as we have witnessed this week.Being in Christchurch reminds me of another time when cricket found its way to the front pages, at least those of the Mail On Sunday and the Daily Express. In 1984 England toured New Zealand; in fact that is the only series in which New Zealand have defeated England on home soil, although if Joe Root’s side...