Botham could have some answers

Sir Ian Botham. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

England's defeats in the first two Ashes Tests at Perth and Brisbane have subjected them to massive criticism from fans and former players, who are in Australia on commentary duty. Their 2005 Ashes-winning skipper Michael Vaughan feels a 0-5 result is a possibility while Phil Tufnell - the erstwhile left-arm spinner - questioned the players' desire. Stuart Broad, the baby in the players-turned-commentators band Down Under, wondered whether the think-tank chose the right bowlers for the Brisbane Test.

Sir Ian Botham, the senior-most of the lot, felt the English spectators should ask the England and Wales Cricket Board for a refund. He slammed the team's decision not to train thoroughly with the pink ball ahead of the Gabba Test, where Australia won convincingly like they did in the end inside two days at Perth.

Former players spending their winter in England have chimed in too. Bazball has become Badball and soon someone is going to call head coach Brendon McCullum's aggressive methods, Deadball. Some of the comments made by their former players moved me to be cynical. Can all these irate men, who are questioning the commitment of the current team and calling them arrogant, honestly say that they gave their everything for England on each day of their playing careers, I wondered. Yes, they are paid to be radio and television pundits and are obliged to tell it as it is, but one mustn't forget that many of those experts were never part of an Ashes-winning England team in Australia.

Then I heard Botham say, not in a boastful way, that he has been part of five Ashes-winning squads (1977, 1978-79, 1981, 1985 and 1986-87) and that's an incredible feat. Only twice (1982-83 and 1989) was he in an urn-surrendering England team. The Australians whitewashed a Botham-powered England 3-0 in their summer of 1979-80, but the Ashes were not at stake that year.

Nasser Hussain (splendid broadcaster, who was never part of an Ashes-winning England side) wrote an interesting piece for the New York Times in which he dwelled upon what Stokes should tell his players one-on-one.

But if the England captain wants to be on the other side of a conversation, Botham is the one who he should spend some of his off-field hours with.

Not many sides have come back to win a series after losing two Tests in a row, but Botham knows a thing or two about revivals. He can elaborate to Stokes on what it took to strike back in the 1981 series, which came to be known as Botham's Ashes.

Botham decided to quit as captain (chief selector Alec Bedser told the press that they decided to sack him anyway) after England drew the second Test at Lord's, where Botham bagged a pair. Australia had won the opening Test at Trent Bridge. Mike Brearley was recalled as captain. His conversation with Botham went like this, according to Botham in the book, Head On after he asked his premier all-rounder whether he wanted to play in the third Test at Leeds:

Botham: Of course I bloody want to play, Brears. I have a good feeling about this Test. We can beat this shower."

Brearley: That's great. I think you'll get 150 runs and take 10 wickets.

Botham did just that with the bat and claimed seven wickets in the game. The Ashes began to move in England's side of the urn as it were.

Brearley was no Nostradamus, but as Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg once said, "He has a degree in people."

Botham was in Bob Willis's 1982-83 England team in Australia. The visitors lost the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests after the draw in the opening Test at Perth.

A gripping Test followed in Melbourne, where Australia entered Day Five on 255-9, in pursuit of 292 for victory.

Willis didn't have Botham in his plans to stop an improbable Australian victory. Overnight batsmen Allan Border and No. 11 Jeff Thomson took their team closer. They kept England at bay for well over an hour on the final morning. Botham walks up to Willis, his fellow Leeds 1981 hero and captain, and reminds him that his arm is not broken. Botham gets the ball, and also gets Thomson to edge one to Chris Tavare at second slip. The ball spills out of Tavare's hands but first slipper Geoff Miller holds on to it for England to win by three runs.

Far away in Pakistan, Mudassar Nazar, who was known as the man with the golden arm, was preparing to take on India before the December 31, 1982 third ODI in Lahore. But another Golden Arm was in Melbourne the day earlier. As Brian Mossop wrote in the Australian Cricket newspaper, "A decision on The Ashes would have to wait until the Sydney Test and the New Year." Australia ultimately regained it.

By the time England landed for their next series Down Under in 1986, they were called no-hopers. The late journalist Martin Johnson famously wrote that Mike Gatting's side, "can't bat, bowl, and field." Guess who goes about crushing that theory? Botham. He launched an assault on the Australians in the first Test at Brisbane that translated into his first century in three years.

His Duncan Fearnley Attack bat smashed a 174-ball 138 that included 13 fours and four sixes. His century set England's Ashes-winning in motion from a batting point of view.

And who knows, his words of wisdom to Stokes, if that pre-Adelaide Test meeting ever takes place, could help England offload some of the ridicule.

mid-day's Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.