'Sachin's greatest batsman of modern era'

[King]

Sitting on piles of runs in both forms of cricket and with virtually every batting record in his pocket, Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of the modern era, according to Chris Cairns. More... 'Sachin's greatest batsman of modern era' Dubai, July 11: Sitting on piles of runs in both forms of cricket and with virtually every batting record in his pocket, Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of the modern era, according to former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns. Enjoying every bit of his stint with the Lashings World XI after an illustrious career with the New Zealand team, Cairns was asked to name the best batsman of his era and the Kiwi picked Tendulkar. Among the bowlers, Pakistani great Wasim Akram was Cairns' choice. Blessed with six-hitting abilities and lively pace, Cairns was hailed as one of the few genuine all-rounders of his era. The affable Kiwi, however, rates Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev as the three best all-rounders of the modern era. "In my view Ian Botham tops the list. He has won more matches and could easily turn a match with his effort," Cairns was quoted as saying by 'Gulf News'. "Imran Khan is next as the Pakistani all-rounder could bat at number four and also used to open the bowling.

[King]

I agree with Cairnsy on all accounts but for Botham as the greatest of all all rounders. Cairnsy was one of my idols :thumbs_up:

[Predator_05]

That scumbag Cairns. I still remember how he stole the '00 ICC Champions Trophy from India...i have hated him ever since.

[suraj]

Imran Khan IMO rates higher than Botham

[Cricketics]

chris cairns, one of my bloody favorite player.. he does make sense.. nice to hear from him..

[kumble_rocks]

Good post although , Imo - Imran Khan > Ian Botham > Kapil Dev > Richard Hadlee.

[Holysmoke]

Always liked Cairns as a player.. dangerous.. when he got going.. it was carnage....

[Dhondy]

Suddenly, everybody loves Cairns around here. Hallelujah!:tounge_smile:

[Lurker]

Cairns was asked to name the best batsman of his era and the Kiwi picked Tendulkar. Among the bowlers, Pakistani great Wasim Akram was Cairns' choice. The affable Kiwi, however, rates Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev as the three best all-rounders of the modern era. "In my view Ian Botham tops the list. He has won more matches and could easily turn a match with his effort,"

Right on every single account. Sachin is indeed the greatest batsman of Cairn's era. Akram was the best bowler of his time. Botham was clearly the best all-rounder. And I say this as a Kapil fan. You only have to look in how many matches Botham scored 50 and took 5 plus wickets. There is no way Kapil or Imran compares to him in this regard. Heck the man scored 200 and took 10 wickets in a test(against India Jubilee Test). Imran ended up with mountain of stats but rarely did he fire both as bowler and batsman. Kapil was more a balanced all-rounder but purely in terms of match winning performance Botham gets my vote. xxx

[Lurker]

^^ Correction. Botham "only" scored 114 runs and took 13 wickets for 107 runs in the Jubilee Test. http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1979-80/ENG_IN_IND/ENG_IND_T_15-19FEB1980.html

[The Outsider]

I remember reading a match report on the Jubilee test a long time back and the ball was described to be swinging all over the place and for all you know the author might have been spouting garbage but he attributed to very strong winds from the Arabian Sea over the first couple of days.

[Predator_05]

Wasn't he offered the key of the city after that match ? Surely it's the greatest all-round performance of all-time.

[Lurker]

I remember reading a match report on the Jubilee test a long time back and the ball was described to be swinging all over the place and for all you know the author might have been spouting garbage but he attributed to very strong winds from the Arabian Sea over the first couple of days.

Which would only show why I rate Botham as the best batsman of the awesome foursome. He came in at around 58/5 and had to face Kapil who was a great swinger of the ball, Ghavri who could be handful at times and Binny who again was very dangerous when the ball swung. To score a century in such a setting certainly ranks as fine an effort as any. By the way no other batsman managed a 50 in the game let alone a century. Of course Beefy also picked 13 wickets to show for his efforts. xxx

[The Outsider]

Found the following match report on Wisden. They don't mention strong winds but attribute it to grass cover on the pitch and overcast conditions. Anyhow, it's a nice read for what Predator said would perhaps be the greatest allround performance in cricket history :

With the rival sides fatigued, both mentally and physically, at the end of an arduous season, the Test match to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India produced poor cricket. But it was redeemed by an extraordinary all-round performance by Botham, whose versatility was in full bloom. There was hardly a session on which he did not bring his influence to bear, performing the unprecedented feat of scoring a century and capturing thirteen wickets in a Test. Taylor, the England wicket-keeper, also established a new world Test record by taking ten catches in the match. To England, after the Test series in Australia, this success, even if inspired by one man, brought welcome relief. But for India, the defeat ended an unbeaten run of fifteen Test matches, four of which they had won. With the pitch uncharacteristically grassy, England were at no disadvantage from losing the toss; even less so as an overcast sky was a further aid to swing and cut on the opening morning. The Indians, jaded after playing sixteen Tests in the past seven months, could not summon the application and discipline needed to combat these conditions and were bowled out in less than a day for 242, Botham taking six for 58 and Taylor taking seven catches. India would have fared even worse but for gallant resistance from the lower order of their batting. Batting as indifferently as they did in Australia, England at 58 for five looked most unlikely to match India's score, let alone build on the advantage created by their bowlers. But they were only 13 runs behind when they lost their next wicket two hours twenty minutes later. Botham, batting for 206 minutes and hitting 17 4s, scored 114 in an innings which was responsible and yet not lacking in enterprise. His stand of 171 with Taylor was England's best-ever sixth-wicket partnership against India. Taylor remained entrenched until the third day was more than an hour old and altogether scored 43 in a stay of four and a half hours. Yet their stand could have been cut short at only 85 when umpire Hanumantha Rao upheld an appeal against Taylor for a catch behind the wicket, off Kapil Dev. Taylor hesitated and protested at the decision. Viswanath, the Indian captain, who was fielding at first slip, was as certain as the batsman that there had been no contact and persuaded the umpire to rescind his verdict. Even on the third day there was sufficient bounce and movement off the seam to trouble the Indian batsmen. Showing little spirit, India were only 2 runs ahead with half their second-innings wickets gone, and but for an innings of 45 not out by Kapil Dev, who batted in the forthright manner of Botham, the match might not have gone into the fourth day. The recent history of Test pitches at the Wankhede Stadium - earlier in the season both Australia and Pakistan were beaten in four days, with spinners causing the havoc - prompted England to equip themselves with two specialist spinners in Underwood and Emburey. In the event Underwood bowled only seven overs and Emburey none at all. Of the ten wickets captured by the Indians, their opening bowlers, Ghavri and Kapil Dev, took five and three wickets, respectively.

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153583.html

[Lurker]

Yet their stand could have been cut short at only 85 when umpire Hanumantha Rao upheld an appeal against Taylor for a catch behind the wicket, off Kapil Dev. Taylor hesitated and protested at the decision. Viswanath, the Indian captain, who was fielding at first slip, was as certain as the batsman that there had been no contact and persuaded the umpire to rescind his verdict.

Completely forgot about this part. For some reason I was thinking the incident happened in Calcutta. But yeah it is true(obviously) that it happened in Jubilee Test. Good on Vishy that he played the game like a gentleman and did not taint what was a historic occassion. I wonder how would players/fans react today if similar incident happened though? xx

[theguyinallblue]

i liked his curly hair style..and that marlboro looks...always wanted a hair style like him...

[Guest dada_rocks]

Cairns is right Botham doesn't have ball-tampering charges and subsequent confession going against him.

[Gambit]

^^ Correction. Botham "only" scored 114 runs and took 13 wickets for 107 runs in the Jubilee Test. http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1970S/1979-80/ENG_IN_IND/ENG_IND_T_15-19FEB1980.html

I have read about this performance. Simply phenomenal. A blockbuster of a performance. Botham is undoubtedly the most underrated amongst Kapil, Imran and himself.

[CC1981]

Botham = most overrated. Performance against the best is a big deal in my rating a player..i mean why else would we think Tendulkar > Kallis in tests if it wernt for the fact that kallis has almost always sh@t his pants against Australia ? Botham was a guy good at bashing mediocre/okay teams but didnt have it in him to raise his game against the best team of his era. I'd rate him marginally ahead of Hadlee..only coz Hadlee was really a bowler who could biff the ball a bit on his day. He had four-five good years and then got figured out..Kapil and Imran are far better than him in my book. Plus a guy who takes so many five-fers & 50 or 100 & 10-fer in a match and still finishes about on-par with Kapil for averages (despite playing for more than half his career in a better team) means only one thing- Botham was a 'one match I am king, next 10 match i am pauper' kinda player. And Gambo, Botham is nowhere close to being underrated...if you ever go to Aussie or English websites, you'd see many rating Botham ahead of Sobers as an allrounder.

[King]

Botham was Cairns' idol and no wonder he named him as the best. As for rating the four all rounders of yesteryears : Imran Khan : Batting : 7/10 (Despite the average he wasn't one the best of the batters) Bowling : 9/10 Fielding/Catching : 5/10 Total : 21/30 Captaincy : 8/10 Total : 28/40 Once you bring in captaincy the results sway towards Imran Khan. Hadlee Batting : 5/10 Bowling : 10/10 Fielding/Catching : 7/10 (Fantastic catcher in the gully and a natural out fielder) Total : 22/30 Kapil Dev : Batting : 9/10 Bowling : 6/10 Fielding/Catching : 8/10 Total : 23/30 Captaincy : 5/10 Total : 27/40 Ian Botham : Batting : 8/10 Bowling : 6/10 Fielding/Catching : 9/10 Total : 23/30 Captaincy : 3/10 Total : 26/40 That is how I would rate the all rounders. All rounders is not just about batting or bowling in my opinion. The fielding plays a fair part in it too. Kapil Dev, Botham and Hadlee were all fantastic fielders. Imran Khan was below par in fielding but he was a decent bat and a good bowler. Kapil Dev was perhaps the best bat of the lot but was below Hadlee and Imran as a bowler. He was on par with Botham as a bowler. I cannot see how Botham can be better than Imran Khan or Kapil Dev???