Ian Botham

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 30:11

And the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My castaway this week is a cricketing hero. He bowls fast, hits big, and lives hard, all of which have established him, at the age of thirty-three, as the most eye-catching all-rounder of our time. At the moment, he's out of commission, dropped from England's winter tour of the West Indies. But when he comes back, as he plans to do, he intends to push his total Test wickets to four hundred, which will be another record. But then making and breaking records are all part of the game for Ian Botham. Ian, you need another twenty four wickets, I think, to make it four hundred.

Ian Botham1:02

I think that's right, Sue, yeah.

Presenter1:03

When do you intend to make to take those?

Ian Botham1:06

I hope I get the opportunity this summer. I'm going to train very, very hard after Christmas. I as you can see I'm not exactly in the peak of fitness at the moment, but uh come Christmas into the strict routine, train very, very hard.

Ian Botham1:17

and hopefully uh come out firing on all cylinders.

Presenter1:20

How big a disappointment was it then not being chosen to play this winter?

Ian Botham1:24

Personally it wasn't that great a disappointment because I hadn't particularly played that well this summer and I had I hadn't played very much cricket at all because I'd spent half the summer recovering from having my face smashed.

Ian Botham1:34

Yeah.

Ian Botham1:35

I wasn't that er surprised. The thing that baffled me, though, was why spend three months talking me into making myself available to go on tour, then not to pick me. That I don't understand.

Ian Botham1:45

And equally I don't understand um how David Gow is not on tour, but that's that's another

Ian Botham1:51

Dimension.

Presenter1:52

Well, you think they were mad not to select him?

Ian Botham1:54

Well, I think if you're taking the best on in their own backyard.

Ian Botham1:57

I you the West Indies, I find it hard to believe that you don't take your best players in England, and David Gow is certainly one of the best players that we've ever produced.

Presenter2:04

It's been said, though, that Gooch and Lamb will bring greater leadership and guidance to the younger players than you and Gower might have done. I mean, there's an implied criticism there, isn't there? Do you accept that?

Ian Botham2:15

No, I don't, but I I'm getting used to people who make uh criticisms from afar.

Presenter2:20

Would you care to predict the outcome of this tour, then?

Ian Botham2:23

My heart goes with the side and I really do wish they hope they do well, particularly players like Robin Smith, and I hope they come through it well because they're going to be the backbone of English cricket for a long time. But my brain tells me that it's going to be very, very difficult.

Ian Botham2:36

And if England draw a test, I think they'll have done well.

Presenter2:39

Do you think they're going to get knocked about a bit, the new boys?

Ian Botham2:42

Well, I don't think you take youngsters.

Ian Botham2:44

who have never seen this kind of bowling and have only played a year in first class crit, you don't throw them in at that deep end. Because players with obviously a lot of ability as youngsters, I want to see them playing for England for the next five, six years. I don't want to see them having to recover for three years from what's going to happen in the West Indies.

Presenter3:01

Well, in the meantime, we're sending you to a a desert island. You it can be in the West Indies if you like.

Ian Botham3:06

It sounds a lot safer than where they're going.

Presenter3:06

But

Presenter3:08

Ted Dexter won't be there, anyway. Um does it appeal to you, seclusion, on a on a sun kissed at all?

Ian Botham3:13

It does. It does. I actually I am very much alone. I when I finish working I like to get away. I love to go to Scotland, remote parts of Ireland.

Ian Botham3:22

You know, I'm quite happy. I enjoy solitude. It's I find it very therapeutic.

Presenter3:26

But escape would be very much on the agenda eventually, would it, from from the desert island?

Ian Botham3:30

Oh yes, I intend to survive and return.

Presenter3:34

You don't know how.

Ian Botham3:35

Uh I'll get there.

Presenter3:37

Anyway, to while away the hours, you have a a wind-up gramophone and eight records. What's the first one?

Ian Botham3:43

Well, I think you've got to start off with something that epitomizes my era, rock and roll and the start of rock and roll.

Ian Botham3:49

And there are two groups to me that epitomize that, and the one that I'd like to start off with which is a nice, lively track, uh The Rolling Stones, Get Off My Cloud.

Speaker 43:59

'Cause I work by fans and I have this

Presenter4:26

The Rolling Stones and get off for my cloud.

Presenter4:29

Obviously, Ian you're a born ball player, a natural, as they say, but you might have been a footballer, I think.

Ian Botham4:35

Basically about the age of fifteen I had to make a decision, and I sat down with my father.

Ian Botham4:39

and I had a long chat with him.

Ian Botham4:42

Do you think I'm a better cricketer, Dad, or do you think I'm a better soccer player? Because I never had any intentions of working too hard at school and uh I always wanted to go into sport.

Ian Botham4:51

and I think my parents came to terms with about the age of fourteen.

Ian Botham4:55

Because I can remember my father standing over me, you've got to do this homework. He used to stand over me. Plow through it. But.

Ian Botham5:03

I sat down with him and he said, Well, I if I'm honest,'cause my father was a very good sportsman and he said, If I'm honest, I think you're a better cricketer and

Ian Botham5:10

I thank my father very much for making that decision.

Presenter5:12

Your mother was a bit of a cricketer as well, wasn't she?

Ian Botham5:14

Oh yes, my mother she was very much involved in sport badminton, cricket, all sorts.

Presenter5:18

But what sort of schoolboy were you? I mean, if you didn't do your homework, as you just said, were you also quite difficult to control?

Ian Botham5:25

No, I was actually a house monitor at one stage. A prefecture? Yes, at one stage. No, I was.

Presenter5:29

Prefecture.

Ian Botham5:32

I think the way that one teacher described me a few years after I'd left school, he said, you know, he said, you were actually the most likable rogue we've ever had at that school in my time and I thought, well, I can handle that, that's quite a nice compliment, yeah.

Presenter5:44

I read somewhere that one of your headmasters wrote, Ian will never achieve anything in life if he persists with such an unhelpful attitude. Do you remember that one?

Ian Botham5:52

Yeah, because at my every time the careers officer came round, they said to me, you know, what, you've got to think about your future I said, Look, I want to play sport. Yes, every kid wants to play sport, sir, but you you know, you've got to think about your future I said, I want to play sport. And that's how that evolved.

Presenter6:05

Uh w you mentioned football just now. I mean you played badminton as well, didn't you, as a as a boy?

Ian Botham6:10

Badminton was a game that I actually enjoyed very, very much, and I played with a schoolmate who I still see now, a guy called Robin Trevitt, and the two of us.

Ian Botham6:19

Undefeated county champions, I think, under fifteen or something. Well, I think we only played about three matches a year, but we terrorized the opposition.

Presenter6:26

And and you were a choir boy. I didn't know you could sing.

Ian Botham6:28

No, I can't sing. I actually was in the choir as a mercenary choir boy. Used to get paid th uh three shillings a wedding, I think it was, and uh about five bob a term.

Presenter6:37

What do you do, stand out the back and mouth it?

Ian Botham6:38

I basically mined, yeah. I my actually got my upons when I was about nine or ten years old.

Ian Botham6:44

Songs of Praise came to Yeovil Church and I was stood there in the choir and as the c as the camera panned round there's this young lad there with the short hair and I as it gets the middle of this rousing hymn and I'm there stood there yawning in the middle of it. So I basically my parents have still got that on video. So

Ian Botham7:01

I can't get away from it.

Presenter7:03

Shall we have your setting record? What is it?

Ian Botham7:05

Well

Ian Botham7:06

We've had a little bit of rock and roll and another part of music that perhaps a lot of people don't realize I enjoy listening to is quite a lot of classical music.

Ian Botham7:13

And to me, if you like, we've had the Rolling Stone to epitomize rock and roll. To me, classical music is epitomized by Beethoven.

Presenter8:14

Part of Beethoven's Symphony No. three, the Eroica, played by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Carrian. So, Ian Botham, whether it was football or badminton or cricket, what you fundamentally always had, presumably, was the will to win.

Ian Botham8:29

Yeah, I I have to say to that I

Ian Botham8:31

Don't believe that if you go out onto any sports field and you're playing with eleven other guys uh or on your own and you're playing against someone else, you owe them the respect and the right to go out there and try and beat them, because that's what sport is all about, competitives. That's what life's all about.

Presenter8:47

But can you do it without rancor? I think that's perhaps why people somehow don't always want to encourage competition, because they feel that it will make people vicious.

Ian Botham8:57

It just doesn't happen like that in the world. E everyone is not equal.

Ian Botham9:00

Some cricketers are better than others, some businessmen are better than others, some presenters are better than others. I mean, it's the way that the way the world ticks.

Presenter9:07

So when you go out and and play cricket or a round of golf or whatever with your twelve year old son, do you still play to beat him?

Ian Botham9:14

Oh yeah. I mean, I I beat him, but I let him you know, I'm only by one or two holes. No, I I think that's good for him though, because he enjoys the challenge. He wants to beat me and I want him to beat me. So.

Ian Botham9:25

It's lighting providing you can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Presenter9:28

Well now tell me about that day in the summer of of nineteen seventy four when in many ways I think that the legend of Ian Botham began. You were eighteen years old and you were playing for Somerset. They were having a good season and they were fifth I think in the championship and they were playing in the quarterfinal of the Benson and Hedges against Hampshire. But they were looking defeat in the face were they not? They were one hundred and thirteen for eight and you were out there facing the fastest bowler in the country at the time, Andy Roberts?

Ian Botham9:55

Yeah, I had Andy slipped me a bouncer and uh

Ian Botham9:59

As I was a brash young eighteen year old, I didn't have uh much respect for these quick bowlers.

Ian Botham10:05

and I got I got into the position where I attempted to try something that resembled a hook shot, and I suddenly realized that I was in deep trouble, because whenever a ball is going to miss you in cricket it it's just a blur either side, but when it's going to hit you it's about the size of a football in front of your nose.

Ian Botham10:18

and I managed to get my hand in the way.

Ian Botham10:21

uh reactions and on the recall it hit knocked two teeth out with my own fist on this side and on the recall two popped out on the other side for good sim just to match up.

Presenter10:30

And then then it was, I think, the last but one over and and you just needed three to win and you you pushed one through the boundary.

Ian Botham10:36

Yeah, we just s squirted one through the covers.

Presenter10:38

That has to be the will to win, doesn't it? I I mean, to to be able to go on playing when your teeth are falling out and you're covered in blood.

Ian Botham10:45

Well, actually, you know, the the thing is it doesn't hurt when you actually do it. Everything goes numb. It's about two days later it really hurt. When I had to go to the dentist and they had to let it settle down and then they start taking roots out and rebuilding and ooh.

Presenter10:56

But two days later, also, you then realise, I'm sure, quite quickly, that you're a hero and that adulation has set in. How does that feel?

Ian Botham11:04

Dude.

Ian Botham11:05

If I'm honest, very good.

Presenter11:07

Your mother has said that you used to practice signing your autograph when you were quite small. Obviously you intended to make a name for yourself.

Ian Botham11:14

Yes, um I think I'd made my mind up from about the age of nine that I wanted to play sport.

Presenter11:18

And you were going to be famous.

Ian Botham11:20

I wanted to be, yes.

Presenter11:21

You like being famous?

Ian Botham11:22

Ah, I did at the time. I thought it was quite nice. Now are there times I wish I wasn't. The worst part is to the children.

Ian Botham11:28

If I have a bad run.

Ian Botham11:30

then inevitably kids can be very cruel to each other and the children cop it, so

Ian Botham11:35

I think that's it'd be nice if you could have two lives. You could have the normal family life and if you like the sporting hero life, it if it's ideal, boy's own.

Presenter11:42

But the two go hand in hand. Unfortunately. Brian Close was captain of Somerset, wasn't he, in those early days. Would you say he'd been the biggest single influence on your cricketing life?

Ian Botham11:48

Would you

Ian Botham11:51

Certainly one of the major influences. I think him and Tom Cartwright and Kenny Barrington were probably the three cricketing people who had most influence over my career.

Presenter12:00

You mentioned your your um family just now, because I think when you decided to marry Cathy, um, Brian Close uh warned her off standing in your way, because he said you were going to be a great cricketer, and and she was obviously as good as her word. Um but didn't he also make you promise not to hurt her?

Ian Botham12:18

Hmm. Oh yes.

Presenter12:19

Do you think you've been as good as your word?

Ian Botham12:21

Yes, I do. And uh uh I mean, I'll be quite honest, I think if it wasn't for Cath and the stabilizing effect of Cath around, uh it would have been very easy to have slid off the rails.

Presenter12:30

She's had a lot to put up with though.

Ian Botham12:32

Oh, a tremendous amount. But uh the beauty is that she's now travelled for the last few years with me so much that she actually sees the bull that goes on. You know, the she's seen the other side of the fence now and uh she understands what, if you like, what we go through and equally I understand what she goes through more.

Presenter12:47

Well, we'll talk more about that in a minute, but let's have another bit of music. What's next?

Ian Botham12:52

Bob Marley and the whalers were.

Ian Botham12:54

magnificent. They brought communities, they brought countries together. And uh

Ian Botham12:58

He'll always be a very important part of my music world.

Speaker 413:08

No more money or flag.

Speaker 413:14

For all manghood

Speaker 413:20

Oh my little daughter.

Speaker 413:22

Don't step no deal.

Speaker 413:26

Go, run my go.

Presenter13:31

Bob Marley and the Wailers singing No Woman, No Cry.

Presenter13:34

You're not a conformer, Ian Tour.

Presenter13:38

Understate perhaps your image. You're you're a bit of a wild man, a bit of a rebel. Would you agree with that?

Ian Botham13:44

I think the the biggest problem I have is that uh I find it very hard to walk away from situations. If a guy comes up to me in the street and

Ian Botham13:51

pushes me in the chest or calls calls me whatever, I find it very hard to walk away from that situation. Which you should do. I know you should do. But there are times when, you know, after a hard day and things haven't gone well, you tend to react.

Presenter14:04

And you can't teach yourself that. I mean, do you go away from that?

Ian Botham14:06

I'm a lot better now than I was.

Presenter14:08

But but then of course there have been the the the sexual allegations which which seem to haunt big cricketing names, actually women booze and and gymnastics the night before the match.

Ian Botham14:15

Yeah.

Presenter14:17

What about all of that?

Ian Botham14:18

Well, d the thing that annoys me about that is that all these great things appear in the papers, but they're never ever

Ian Botham14:25

Uh any real evidence? The hall porter at so-and-so said, or

Ian Botham14:30

Miss So and So from Barbados said, and then you read the article and Miss So and So from Barbados uh is not exactly an angel herself as the light comes out. So you I mean, it's amazing what people will do. And what the problem you've got is you've got certain newspapers in this country who will pay vast sums of money without really doing very much homework to any Tom, Dick and Harry off the street who wants to

Ian Botham14:50

Drop someone in it. We see it every day.

Presenter14:51

But you are no angel.

Ian Botham14:53

Oh, I'm no angel, no. Goodness gracious I mean, l see the halo? No, I'm I enjoy life. I mean, I do things, I've done some things, and you think, Oh, why did you do that, you idiot? You know, but that's to me that's life. I'm I was never perfect, I never will be perfect.

Presenter15:07

But you sound quite chippy about it, quite resentful that you, Ian Botham, can't go out there and behave like Ian Botham wants to.

Ian Botham15:14

No, what I object to is that I can't, for instance, uh go to the the pub round the corner with a couple of friends and have a quiet drink. I don't see that because you're successful in sport or something, you should then become a target for every idiot that walks the street. I don't understand why that should happen.

Presenter15:28

What what do you think, then, are your greatest strengths?

Ian Botham15:32

My greatest strength, I think, without doubt, is loyalty.

Ian Botham15:35

And at times I'm too loyal to people who are actually um

Ian Botham15:40

If you like calling me, taking me for a ride, doing it because I think because I trust them. If you feel like I'm gullible at times.

Presenter15:46

Perhaps this is all the flip side of being a hero and a famous hero. That is to say your weaknesses get highlighted and you get taken advantage of.

Ian Botham15:52

Did you f

Ian Botham15:53

Yeah, I think unfortunately that happens. But that's the world we live in.

Presenter15:57

Another record, please.

Ian Botham15:59

Well, here's a chap, apart from anything else, he's a great friend and I think that uh he's a great he's a legend and he'll always be a legend in my eyes and that's Eric Clapton. And there's one track that you only have to hear the opening few bars and everybody knows of it, and that's Layla.

Speaker 416:32

It was just your boolean straw.

Presenter16:45

Eric Clapton and Layla.

Presenter16:47

If people expect you to be colourful in the way that you lead your life, they certainly expect you to be dazzling when you walk out onto the cricket pitch in. Do you feel.

Presenter16:57

The weight of that expectation sometimes.

Ian Botham17:00

That that's to me it is is a compliment and I enjoy that and I think it it's lovely when you go out and you can actually feel the buzz around the crowd as you walk out and it makes you tingle.

Ian Botham17:12

I mean I enjoy that.

Presenter17:13

You you were, of course, Captain of England in the early eighties, but it it wasn't an altogether happy experience, and and uh you you asked to step down in the end. Why? Did it did it cramp your style?

Ian Botham17:23

No, it didn't crack my style. The thing was I was getting fed up of people saying that uh the captaincy is affecting his play.

Ian Botham17:30

Maybe, I suppose, on reflection, I was probably a little bit young, for the captaincy but

Ian Botham17:34

Uh when that comes along your way, you want it.

Presenter17:36

So would you like to be captain again now you're older?

Ian Botham17:39

I think I understand the job a lot more and I think uh

Ian Botham17:42

I could uh probably

Ian Botham17:44

Do a much better job than I did.

Ian Botham17:46

But I don't think uh the situation will ever occur.

Ian Botham17:50

And

Ian Botham17:51

Well, I don't I I think certain people at Lord's perhaps

Ian Botham17:56

Uh I don't know what it is. I think uh again, I think at times uh it's resentment. You know, I I I'm not sure why. But you see, there's these stories about uh Botham doesn't get on with his team and everything. That's that's where it's so untrue, because I'm probably the biggest team man that there ever has been. I try to be a team man. I want to be a team man.

Ian Botham18:14

And I think that's why players

Ian Botham18:16

Will always stand by me.

Presenter18:18

Then why don't the authorities see that and know that, right?

Ian Botham18:20

Perhaps they don't want to.

Presenter18:22

They blind themselves on purpose.

Ian Botham18:23

Well, I th I maybe maybe they just don't want it to happen. I don't know. I don't think it will ever happen.

Presenter18:28

You're not much of a practiser, are you?

Ian Botham18:31

No, I actually get quite scared.

Presenter18:32

Why?

Ian Botham18:33

I I hate being closed in.

Ian Botham18:34

And in nets, you stand at the end of a net,

Ian Botham18:37

Every bowler bowls about two yards quicker than he does in the middle in the nets. They also bowl about off twenty yards instead of twenty two yards.

Ian Botham18:44

You're closed in the net, and inevitably, there's someone on one side and someone on the other side. So, as the bloke's about to bowl to you,

Ian Botham18:49

There's a ball hitting the net here or hitting the net here or someone going, Ow, she's hit me on the foot, or and I just can't concentrate. I feel closed in and I actually don't like it.

Presenter18:57

That sounds like a very good excuse for not practising.

Ian Botham18:59

Oh, well I said I tell you what, anyone that thinks that's wrong, go and stand down at the end of the nets when it's all happening and see how they feel.

Presenter19:04

But somebody like Boycott would stand in the nets for hours and hours and hours.

Ian Botham19:09

Ah, but Jeff went into the nets to get rid of all his shots before he went out in the middle.

Ian Botham19:13

Not sure what's element anyway, please.

Presenter19:16

So you don't m agree when all these um cricketing critics say that England would play much better if they actually got down to some decent hard practice and didn't just turn up for half an hour in the afternoon when they felt like it?

Ian Botham19:27

It's amazing, you know, most of these good critics that write all this, uh who do they play cricket for?

Ian Botham19:32

Seven Oaks third eleven.

Ian Botham19:35

I really do think that they ought to just get on with their writing, because when I read a lot of their writing they're not very good writers, half of them.

Presenter19:40

Record number five, please.

Ian Botham19:42

Well, you go th you go through low periods, whatever you do, whether whether you're the local gardener or you're the butcher or you're a cricketer or footballer, whatever, you have periods where everything seems to go wrong. And when that goes wrong for me, I walk I go at home and I put on Tchaikovsky's eighteen twelve.

Ian Botham19:57

And by the end of that, by the time the guns and the cannons and everything are firing, I feel great.

Presenter21:04

Part of Tchaikovsky's eighteen twelve overture, played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Schulte. Let's talk about your charity work, Ian, because you've raised more than two million pounds, I think, over the years for leukemia research. Where and how did that commitment begin?

Ian Botham21:18

Uh, fifteen years ago, I think, roughly.

Ian Botham21:21

and I'd got a little stress fracture in my left foot through bowling, a lot of bowling.

Ian Botham21:26

And

Ian Botham21:27

I went to the club doctor and we're having treatment. One of the shortcuts through to the physio department was through the children's ward. As I walked by there these four children playing a board game or whatever. And I said to Dave, I said, Well, they're friends visiting and he actually said, No, unfortunately, the two lads nearest you, he said won't be around in a couple of weeks' time, they've got leukemia. And I didn't know what leukemia was. I'd never heard of it.

Ian Botham21:48

And he went on to explain to me about the red cells, the white cells and the the blood problems and what have you and the bone marrow and the complications of leukemia, which is basically a form of cancer.

Ian Botham21:58

And

Ian Botham21:59

We got talking and I said, Well look, what I'd like to do is I'd like to have a little float and I'll pay for the parties. So every time there's children ill, I'll pay for their parties'cause they give'em when they last few days they give'em a big party. The kids are unfortunately so drugged up by then with pain because they it could be Christmas, Easter or their own birth, they don't know. And they have a party, so I said, Well, look, can I take care of that for you? So unfortunately there was in those days quite a lot of those parties because

Presenter22:09

Okay.

Ian Botham22:22

Uh it was very much an unknown area for leukemia.

Ian Botham22:26

So I got more involved and one day I was with Cath up in the Lake District and I was stuck there walking with Cath. I said, There's got any more we can do than just this? I said, Not many people know about leukemia even.

Ian Botham22:36

I said what about a sponsored walk?

Ian Botham22:38

What about John Agros de Lanzan?

Ian Botham22:40

And she looked at me, and said, Do you see? I said, Yeah.

Ian Botham22:42

and it took about a year to organise, and off we went.

Ian Botham22:47

I must confess there were times at sort of seven thirty in the morning, crawling out of a bed in some remote part of Scotland on the A nine.

Ian Botham22:54

Thinking, what the hell am I doing here? But no, it was marvellous, and the response was tremendous.

Ian Botham22:59

And that's basically how it all started. And I come up with these crazy notions. There's two other walks I intend to do.

Speaker 423:01

No.

Ian Botham23:05

I want to walk from the western block into the eastern block. The other one I'd like to do is the Great Wall of China.

Ian Botham23:11

which is uh I think four thousand miles. But these are projects I'll have to do when I finish playing cricket because

Ian Botham23:17

I haven't got the time.

Presenter23:18

They take an enormous amount of planning. It is like a travelling circus, isn't it?

Ian Botham23:20

Uh

Ian Botham23:21

Oh, it is. I mean, it it is amazing, especially if you can get the elephants over again, because they they are very funny, because when we did the Alps walk

Ian Botham23:28

You can imagine three

Ian Botham23:30

I don't know what, twelve, ten elephants or whatever they weigh, and they're incredibly intelligent animals, marvellous creatures to work with.

Ian Botham23:36

And walking into these little French villages and the French are there to welcome the Lord Mayors there, and you have the little open stalls as you do in France now in the narrow streets. Will you try stopping three twelve ton elephants when they see the vegetable stall?

Ian Botham23:48

And they just waltz in, trunk out, and they clean it out. And there's the broomstick hitting them on the trunk, get away, the old French lady. And we're actually marvellous creatures, so intelligent.

Presenter23:57

When you walked from John O'Groach to Lands End, I can remember there was talk of your being like a pied piper when you arrived in towns and all these children coming out and walking with you. It's heroic stuff, isn't it? Good feeling.

Ian Botham24:08

Oh, it's a great feeling, but uh you know, I I had there was one person who said, Oh, Botham's only doing this to clear his image. I can assure you that you don't walk a thousand miles to clear your image. I'd have got there if I had to get on crutches and do the last two hundred miles. I mean, I would have done. And I will do on the next walks. Because you walk round a leukemia hospital.

Ian Botham24:27

And you see those kids.

Ian Botham24:28

If they have any doubts about my sincerity in this, they should go and have a look at a leukemia hospital ward, because that is

Ian Botham24:35

something that maybe'll open their eyes.

Presenter24:38

Some more music.

Ian Botham24:39

Yeah.

Ian Botham24:40

As we started off with.

Ian Botham24:42

To me the rock and roll legends.

Ian Botham24:44

of music. I think really you've got to have something from The Legends full stop.

Ian Botham24:49

Of music as we know it, pop music, whatever you want to call it, and that's got to be the Beatles.

Ian Botham24:53

And the the track I've picked here, I picked deliberately because it is a Leonard McCartney track.

Ian Botham24:57

Yesterday, which is a great song.

Speaker 425:00

Yesterday.

Speaker 425:03

All my troubles seem so far away

Speaker 425:08

Now it looks as though they're here to stay, oh I believe

Speaker 425:15

Yesterday, suddenly.

Speaker 425:21

I'm not half the man I used to be

Speaker 425:25

There's a shadow hanging over me

Presenter25:31

The Beatles and yesterday. The other method you have of passing the time while you're off games, as it were, Ian, is is doing your own chat show, and mostly on your own, in various venues across the land, sitting on a high stool answering questions from the public. What's the most frequent question you get?

Ian Botham25:48

Uh usually about fast bowlers, the best ones you played against.

Ian Botham25:53

Captains

Ian Botham25:55

Countries you've toured.

Ian Botham25:56

And hotels you stayed in, which are the worst, which are the best.

Ian Botham25:59

And it's amazing how much research people have actually done before they come to the shows, because you get questions, uh, is it true that you uh had uh ballet lessons? Which I find uh hardly you know, a fifteen stone bloke like me you wouldn't believe did ballet lessons, but I actually did one I think. Yeah, my mother sent me along, I'll never forgive her for that. But uh no.

Presenter26:17

Do you have a weight problem?

Ian Botham26:19

Oh yes. I it well not a problem as such because I can control it and I have to control it when I'm playing but like now I'm in the my lull period, my period where I enjoy myself, I eat what I want, I drink what I want, I have a good time, because I love wine.

Ian Botham26:31

And I love good food. So now I let my hair down for about a month, six weeks, and I can slip on a stone quite comfortably just by look I can actually look at a pint and a pork pie and put on three pounds.

Presenter26:41

What about injury, Ian?'Cause again a lot of reports say that you're full of bits of metal and you've had far too many injuries and it's difficult now for you to become really, really fit again.

Ian Botham26:51

Well, again, you see, th it's just another myth created by the media, because I have actually really been trouble free from injuries all my career. I've just happened I've had two or three injuries in the last two years.

Ian Botham27:02

And the back injury was first diagnosed in 78, I think, 79. So I had 10 years before it actually needed operating on.

Ian Botham27:09

And it's now better than ever well, certainly better than it has been for the last six years.

Ian Botham27:13

So th that's and there's no metal in my back, it's all

Ian Botham27:17

bone and good old

Ian Botham27:19

Gristle. But uh

Ian Botham27:22

The other energy I had all right, I got hit in the face. Well, I think that's part and parcel of playing cricket, you're gonna get hit eventually, and I copped it this year.

Ian Botham27:28

and I had a dislocated finger, so I had three injuries in the space of a short period of time. But the rest of my career really I've had one knee operation, which was one where I was walking three days later, or running around three days later, just the old microscope thing.

Ian Botham27:42

And that's basically it. So really I've been trouble free.

Presenter27:44

So can you still move as fast as ever you could?

Ian Botham27:47

I would say that I'm more mobile now than I was six years ago, because of the back the back is free.

Presenter27:52

So if you're fitter now or more mobile than ever you were, how long can that go on? How long before you become less mobile?

Ian Botham27:59

I think I've got about five years left at the top, certainly three to five years, and now I've got the back uh back into shape.

Ian Botham28:07

And when I train and I mean I will train very, very hard. I mean people were amazed. They said, Well, he won't come back after the operation. I came back and played for England.

Ian Botham28:14

But I wasn't happy with that because I didn't play as I want to play because I was on if you like bowling certainly at half power and batting I just didn't get going all summer.

Ian Botham28:23

But uh you know and after a year off that's not surprising. But this year I'll be back and I'll be running in and I'll be bowling.

Ian Botham28:29

More of the people have seen me bowl and expect me to bowl, and probably even better.

Presenter28:33

Shall we have your seventh piece of music?

Ian Botham28:35

One album, Too Low for Zero, was a very, very important part of my life and Elton actually was very influential in it and helped me through a very difficult time.

Ian Botham28:44

because I was at a crossroads in my career, and he saw me through it, and along with Cath and a lot of other very good friends.

Ian Botham28:52

And we built a friendship and

Ian Botham28:56

A very strong friendship there, and I hope it la remains forever.

Ian Botham29:00

In that period of time, and a song that I think is very apt for the two of us is I'm Still Standing.

Speaker 429:06

And did you think this fool could never win? Well look at me, I'm a coming back again. I got a taste of love and a simple way. And if you need to know while I'm still standing, you just fade away.

Presenter29:17

Yeah.

Speaker 429:19

Don't you know I'm still standing Better than I ever did?

Speaker 429:24

Looking like a true survivor

Speaker 429:27

Feeling like a little kid

Presenter29:35

Elton John, and I'm still standing.

Presenter29:38

John Arlett wrote a sentence about you some years ago, actually, that's almost overwhelming, I should think. He wrote It's beyond all doubt that Ian Botham has cricketing greatness in him, perhaps to a greater extent than any one else in the whole history of the game.

Presenter29:54

How do you feel when you read something like that about yourself?

Ian Botham29:58

Or perhaps I've succeeded in something in my life, you know, it's tremendous. I mean, it it's it's a a lovely thing to read. And from someone who without a doubt knows the game.

Ian Botham30:07

And probably as well as any commentator that there has ever been on the game of cricket. Well, I can't think of a bigger compliment. So I thank you, John.

Presenter30:13

And correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that part of that your desire to to to fulfil all of that is also to be sure that you have fun at the same time, you that you enjoy it. That's a kind of guiding light, isn't it?

Ian Botham30:25

Oh, yes, I think I cannot believe that anyone can get through life working day and out, and you do work day and out at cricket the same as you do in any other job.

Ian Botham30:34

Uh if you don't enjoy it, I actually get up.

Ian Botham30:37

Whether it's a Monday, a Sunday, a Saturday, whatever day of the week, and I actually look forward to going and playing cricket.

Ian Botham30:43

And I think that's the most important thing.

Presenter30:45

And what do you say to the authorities then, the men in ties, as you've called them, who say that cricket is not what it used to be in England the gentlemen are gone from it, and they fear for its future?

Ian Botham30:59

Oh, I do love those those sort of thick comments. At the end of the day, cricket is a professional game.

Ian Botham31:05

And you go out there as I said earlier, you go out there to win and to perform and to entertain. It's big business. People pay a lot of money to come through and watch you.

Ian Botham31:14

So you've got to go out there and give it your best shot.

Ian Botham31:17

The days of the gentlemen and the players they may well have gone.

Ian Botham31:21

The game is big business.

Presenter31:23

And when you've fulfilled all of that cricketing ambition and you go on to lean back into life and Ian Botham grows old

Presenter31:32

What, then, will he be doing? What will he be doing when he's sixty?

Ian Botham31:36

I don't think it'd be a lot different, to be quite honest. I don't think uh I actually

Ian Botham31:40

Don't think about uh growing old,'cause I don't think you're only as old as you th think you are.

Ian Botham31:44

And I dunno I still think I'm about sixteen and a half, going on seventeen. And I want to stay that way because to me I think once you you give in and say, Oh, I'm old and I can't do this and I can't do that, well there's not really much point in living.

Ian Botham31:56

To me, life's here to be enjoyed. You're not here for a long time, but you're here for a good time.

Presenter32:00

Shall we have the last record?

Ian Botham32:03

Yeah, and I I am very much through and through British, and I very proud of my country and very proud of being British, and I can't think of a better way of finishing it.

Ian Botham32:13

than Elga's Pomp and Circumstance, because that is British.

Presenter33:09

Part of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. One, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Bolt. Now, Ian, you've got to choose one of those records that you have to have more than any of the others.

Ian Botham33:21

Ashisu, I'd like to ask you a question. Can I take the the album as opposed to just the single?

Presenter33:26

No, no, you don't you get you get eight individual nice old fashioned seventy eights, those big black things in brown paper slips, you know.

Ian Botham33:29

Um

Ian Botham33:33

So what do I do if Elton John I'm Still Standing was only wasn't released as a single?

Presenter33:38

Oh dear.

Presenter33:40

All right, one one special album of Elton John there. I'm sure I'll get into trouble for this. Um what about your book?

Ian Botham33:47

Well, the book and the luxury item actually come hand in hand because as I said right at the start I intend to survive and I want to uh

Ian Botham33:54

I have no intentions of giving up and going away. So, what I'd like to do is, I'd like a book.

Ian Botham33:59

Whether it be an encyclopedia or whatever of the fishes of the world.

Ian Botham34:04

And then I'd like the luxury I asked them to be a fishing rod so I can catch them and eat while I'm on the island and live.

Presenter34:09

Very practical. Ian Botham, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Ian Botham34:14

Thank you, Eric, sir.

Speaker 334:22

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.