Botham - A toothless hero

[Rahul Khan]

Sir Ian Botham has a new autobiography coming out later this week and The Times is serialising it this week. In the first extract, Botham describes his match-winning innings against Hampshire in the 1974 Benson & Hedges Cup in which he won the Man-of-the-Match award but lost several teeth in the process.

I dropped my bat and backed away, cursing and spitting blood, then realised that I was spitting bits of teeth as well. Two teeth had been knocked out and another two broken off at the gum line. Even more alarmingly, they were on opposite sides of my mouth and the ones in between were noticeably looser than they’d been a few moments before. [Andy Roberts] turned to pace back to the end of his run-up, ready to deliver the next thunderbolt. As he did so, I spat out the last fragments of tooth, took a few sips from the glass of water that the twelfth man had brought out and then let him assess the damage.

Believing that the game was lost, he and some of the crowd wanted me to retire hurt to avoid further punishment, but that had never entered my mind. The doctor who examined me after the game told me that I had suffered mild concussion from the blow, which might explain the curious sense of detachment I felt as I brushed off the twelfth man’s restraining arm, picked up my bat and walked back to the crease.

[Mr. Wicket]

ANOTHER autobiography? Bleh. I read his last one (written well after his retirement, I think some time in the mid 90s), doubt this has anything particularly new or of interest to offer. Sod it.

[Rahul Khan]

Okies, brother can we get the old videos of his performances on net? I want to recapitulate his bowling action...