Ian Botham

One of the England's greatest Test players Ian Botham was born on 24 November 1955 at Heswall, Cheshire, England. His original name was Ian Terence Botham. He went to Millford Junior School. Cricket was his passion and for playing cricket and reaching the greatest milestones in the game, he started practicing cricket from his very early years. He played for Somerset Under-15's. He had the offer to play cricket and football, but he chose to play cricket.

Ian Botham started playing first-class cricket, and sooner he reached the grade cricket where he played for the University of Melbourne Cricket Club in 1976-77. He made his international Test debut on 28 July 1977 for England where he took five wickets for 77 runs. His journey of cricket continued successfully with a few hiccups. He acted as a captain for 12 tests. But, as the success rate was not up to the mark, he resigned from the captaincy. He is a good batsman with classic style, an outstanding fielder, and a fast medium paced swing bowler. He played 116 ODI's on a whole.

Ian Botham is a good footballer as well. Controversies are no exception for Ian Botham. He was suspended for smoking cannabis, articles related to ball tampering. His personal life is also involved in controversies where he is said to have extramarital affairs. He is a superb fundraiser and charity walks organizer where he helped a lot for leukemia research. With a high profile in Sheffield of cricket, he was honoured on various platforms. In 2007, as a part of Queen's Birthday Honours, Botham was appointed as a Knight Bachelor. He received an Honorary Doctor of Sciences from the University of Lincoln in 2010. In 2008, he received Honorary Doctor of Sports Science by Leeds Metropolitan University. Another Doctor of Law by the University of Bath. Not only the above mentioned honors, he had many other honors to his credit.