'Sachin's greatest batsman of modern era'

[Lurker]

Ravi, I would say between Kapil and Botham there is a very close fight. Both these gents were all-rounder in truest sense. Both were capable of succeeding as a bowler or batsman in the same game(unlike Imran or Hadlee). Both were great fielders, Kapil being one of the most outstanding fielders in outfield that I have seen while Botham is considered an all-time great in slips. So pretty much little to choose between them. Where Kapil scores over Botham is his performance against the best team of his times West Indies. Botham's performance is nowhere as good. Plus Kapil as a skipper was hell of a lot more successful than Botham was. What goes against Kapil is his sheer stats. His numbers dont do justice to the man. He was noway as bad a bowler to have average around 30 or as bad a bat that he would average a good 4-5 runs less than Botham or Imran. But the man has to suffer for what was essentially his own calling. Had he been even slightly more cautious we would have seen his stats way better than what he ended with. Then again we might have lost the Kapil we know. Botham's stats are very impressive, certainly more than Kapil's. And he as an all-rounder had great time for a while, his last 4-5 years were miserable but if you take them away he would come across even better statswise. xx

[Guest BossBhai]

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[gator]

agree with ur analysis Ravi, except captaincy does not have to figure in rating an allrounder.... it basically points tht Kapil and Botham were the greatest allrounders of the game, marginally.... also, tht there was not much to distinguish between the 4, which made their rivalry all the more gripping in the early to mid 80s...

[King]

Hadlee had great rapport with Kapil Dev. They both exchanged phone calls and met for dinner often. Hadlee mentions Kapil Dev quite fondly and rates him very highly. In fact when Hadlee was down and out Kapil lent his shoulder and carried Hadlee back to the dressing rooms. Similarly Botham was in very good terms with Kapil Dev. They both share fantastic relationship. Imran was in good terms with Hadlee but not with Botham. I'm sure everyone is aware of the infamous law suit that Imran won against Botham and Lamb. I don't know what kind of relationship Kapil Dev shared with Imran though. When they faced off each other I've seen Kapil Dev get struck into his contemporaries often with the bat. I've seen Hadlee smacked around few times by Kapil Dev.

[King]

BTW Botham was the least focussed of all the all rounders. Kapil Dev, Hadlee and Imran were always focussed. Off the field Hadlee and Kapil Dev were very non controversial. While Hadlee considered training way too seriously Ian Botham never really trained. I'm not kidding, he never really trained. He just went out there and did the job. Hadlee was not in great terms with Botham BTW. Hadlee had few differences with Botham.

[MundaPakistani]

Interesting analysis. First 2 selections aren't very surprising but the last one is a bit odd because most experts rate Imran as the best all rounder of the 80s. 2 things differentiate Imran and Botham 1- Their performance against Windies 2- Captaincy. P.S Chris Cairns was one of my fav cricketers, he was good enough to make the NZ team as a pure batsman and was also their best bowler. In the last 40 years NZ have only won 1 test match in PAK and Cairns played a memorable innings in that win. http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1996-97/NZ_IN_PAK/NZ_PAK_T1_21-24NOV1996.html