Ian Botham

Ian Terence Botham was born 24 November 1955 in Heswall.

One of the world's greatest all-round cricketers, and an undoubted world class player in the England sides of the 1980s, whose ability to turn the course of a game with either bat or ball was best seen in the 1981 series against Australia. In 102 Test Matches for England he scored 5200 runs, including 14 centuries, and took 383 wickets, including his best performance of 8 for 34 runs. In 116 One-Day Internationals he scored 2113 runs, his best being 79, and took 145 wickets, his best being 4 for 31 runs.

Ian Botham is not "simply" a cricketer - he is an accomplished golfer with a handicap of 7, he shoots, fishes and he also holds a helicopter pilot licence. He has become a television favourite with appearances on Question of Sport and he was also a subject on This Is Your Life, he has appeared in pantomime. He has now released his official biography called simply "Botham". He won the hearts of the British public with his walks covering 2700 miles raising £2.7 million for Leukaemia Research.

Sir Ian Botham heads list of honoured Merseysiders

SPORTSMEN, police officers, nurses and academics from Merseyside are among those included on this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours’ list.

Heswall-born cricketer Ian Botham was knighted in recognition of his long-standing charity work for leukaemia research.

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