I am Aussie and was 15 when this series was played. I started watching the Perth opening stand but had to leave to go see the Pope who was visiting Melbourne !! I remember leaving the Pope's Mass at the MCG and someone saying England were 0/200 !! No divine intervention that day.
I must be a year older than you, then, as I was 16 at the time of this footage. Botham's Ashes were five years earlier (I would have been eleven back then!)
Botham at his best was in a class of his own. Time & time again he produced match winning performances at the highest level when it was needed with the bat & ball. Total legend & all time great all rounder.
When we went out we were totally written off. Can't bat, can't bowl can't field. We beat the Aussies in every competition both Test and One dayers. Sweet.
I well remember a journalist making that comment and it came back to haunt him, which impressed this then 16 year old YTS trainee! Little did I know that England would not win another Ashes series until the 21st century.
What fantastic viewing that was. Beefy smashing Merv all round the Gabba, Broad's three centuries, and the Melbourne thrashing. Highlight from the whole tour was Lamby smashing Reid for 18 off five balls in the ODI. The overthrow that put Lamb back on strike for the winning boundary was a moment of sheer beauty and hilarity.
One of my best young cricket memories.. I was off sick from school watching the end of that game on BBC 2.. mid morning in England.. I was dancing around my living room at the end of that final over.. luckily my mum and dad had gone to work otherwise I would have been sent back to school as not being sick
Beefy at his best in that first test in Brisbane. No helmet, just went out and smashed it all over the ground. He made you watch cricket. The one player that even the Aussies wanted in their team.
Assassins Unite they didn’t call him beefy for nothing!! He was the guy who made me start watching cricket. We seem to get a player like that in England once a generation maybe. Beefy, Freddie Flintoff and now Ben stokes. Guys who on their day can win a game virtually on their own. Whether it’s a test match, one day or T20.
What a great watch this was. I also liked the music that was played on these broadcasts. Tony Greig and Tony Cozier on commentary, great memories! RIP both
at the time there were also 2 Australian rebel tours to South Africa in 1985 and 1986 which led a lot of the Australian players being banned from international cricket for 2 years for some it ended a number of international careers
Some of the Australian players changed their minds about going on the rebel tour of South Africa in 1985 and said they were available for the Ashes series in England. 3 of them were apparently offered financial inducements to play for Australia in England which caused a big scandal.
The rebel tours seriously affected Australiaʼs bowling. Terry Alderman and Carl Rackemann (who never bowled better than on the rebel tours) would have certainly strengthened Australia in this series, while Rodney Hogg (though becoming too old), John Maguire and Trevor Hohns would have been potentially valuable if available.
Remember the tour when Lamb was whiffed and did something similar in the final over....them wwwas trhe days when cricketers featured regularly on the front pages of the red topic I rags.....Lamb partook in some reefer madness before doing a similar last over smash and grab.... entertaining stuff ....
It was after that series that Border became Captain Grumpy and refused to socialise with Eng on the 1989 tour. The nastiness had begun ably continued by dear Steve Waugh.
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth- this uncouth loutish behaviour. The game is more important and too good to be spoilt! When players descend to the gutter, it's time to call it a day.
At the time, the 1986-87 Ashes was billed as the battle for cricket's wooden spoon. Both teams were crap. The only real surprise of the season was West Indies genuinely failing in the ODI format for the first time.
So when Botham was out in the first WC final, England needed only 81 from 29 overs with 9 wickets. At the normal 1 day scoring rate of 3 per over back then, I bet they struggled!
Except at Sydney where Peter Taylor.... a pretty mediocre spinner... scuppered us. Shouldn't have been playing. The selectors chose the wrong Taylor! That's why I love cricket.
I was a 16 year old YTS trainee at the time of this footage and remember it very well. Bought a couple of books about the 86-87 triumphant tour. Little did I know that England would not win an Ashes series until the 21st century, by which time I was in my mid-thirties!!!
You know the Aussie side in 1989 was not in fact that young. Players close to or over 30: Border Alderman Hohns Lawson Boon Jones Marsh Hughes Really only Taylor, Healy and Waugh were under 25. It was a seasoned side only lacking that self belief
He was no longer an automatic choice by this point. The pace was gone after his major back operation and his batting declined surprisingly quickly after the 86-87 ashes tour. He was still a useful one day player right up until 1992 though.
@@adamw2911 absolutely spot on about the one day form. I just thought that with him having something over the Aussies, it would have been a good idea to have picked him.
@@mrkipling2201 he may have added some know how and been a useful 2nd change bowler. However his batting was about the standard of a number 8 by then. England had decided to invest in Chris Lewis instead who had shown some real promise as an all rounder. However at test level he proved over time that he was never really the answer. Also....and this was the final nail in Botham's test coffin...the English leadership, especially Gooch as Captain just didn't really want Botham in the team for reasons other than cricket. They promised him a place on the 1990 tour to the WI (Botham was extremely eager to help out the younger players) but left him out at the last minute. Dare I say Gooch had the last word there. He was only begrudgingly welcomed back into the England one day setup the following year after he showed some fantastic form for his county side and a huge clamour from the press was made to include him. Even so...Gooch did his best to make things hard for him by insisting on a gruelling training regime that the senior pros loathed. What was sad about all this was that Botham loved playing for his country and was constantly bemused at his non selection, especially at one day level.
@@adamw2911 Bothams back operation affected his whole game (batting aswell as bowling) . It hampered / restricted his whole movement and although very useful he never reached the previous highs & era defining performances ever again. HIs charity work also took over a lot of his time. Between 1976 & 1987 Botham was unsurpassed & along with Sobers is arguably the greatest all rounder ever.
I think that the selectors may have failed to take into consideration the fact that Botham seemed to have the ' Indian sign ' over Australia. Hence my bewilderment at his non selection for the 1990/91 Ashes series. We made a few selection mistakes in the early 1990's. David Gower not going to India in 1992/93 was another one. Which Gooch has admitted was a bad call.
Aussie fan here - we were beaten in depressing fashion this series; we could not break up the first or second wicket partnerships in the first two tests and it was all over before we knew what the fuck had happened. Terrible loss.
Fair play. You certainly made up for it over the next 18 years after this series!! Every ashes series after this one up until 2005, I usually stopped watching after the 2nd test because it was too painful and predictable!!!
@@mrkipling2201 my opinion - England need to really take this series loss in Australia to heart and start planning NOW for their response in 4 years time. They need a Jardine/Larwood-type response to the current mess. Poor Joe Root, classy guy and obviously a quality quality batsman, but he isn't the captaincy answer moving forward.
@@chemistryset1England actually drew the Ashes series and but for the Fourth Test rain on the last day would have won back the Urn! That is, 2023 Ashes series with Stokes in charge with Bazball mentality.
