Imran Khan's Interview on about Great All rounders of his Era

[putrevus]

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/467961.html How do you compare with the three other great allrounders from the 1970s and 80s: Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev? We were all great competitors. I had my duels with all three. Botham was a better batsman than all of them, Hadlee was a better bowler than the others, and Kapil Dev, at one point, had great batting potential but never developed it. It's not easy at that level to keep developing both skills. Ian Botham peaked very early. I think he was already on the downer at 26 or 27 because he had become very big. He started off as an allrounder of more promise than all of us because he had a great side-on bowling action and outswing. But by his late 20s his bowling was no longer effective. And batting-wise, the reason I don't think he fulfilled his potential is his performance against West Indies. I judge batsmen on their performance against the big boys and in critical situations. In that sense, Botham's performance against West Indies was just appalling - averaging about 14 with the bat and around 40 with the ball [in fact, 21 and 35]. I think Botham was best all round player of all of them, because as batsmen he had great technique and could very played as regular batsmen in the team.He was great slip catcher. Kapil in my books was the second best batsman and I would say the most daring batsmen among all the four.He played some great knocks as a batsman against best pace attack both home and away which Botham never did. Imran was not great batsman in my view even though his avg is higher than Kapil dev.He had luxury of just concentrating on batting later in his career with Wasim and Waqar in his team which Kapil never had. Bowling Hadlee was the best and Imran was the fastest.But He never was that great against India in India but was devastating against India in Pakistan.Umpiring and ball tampering help. Against West indies Kapil was better batsman than Imran and equally good bowler. What are your views who was the best all rounder among them.

[kabira]

Kapil Dev without a doubt.