Cricket My Way
Ian Botham’s approach to cricket is simple: keep fit, play hard, aim to win and, above all, enjoy the game. His advice on the skills is equally straightforward: attempt to master the basics … But never be afraid to try something new.In Cricket My Way, Ian elaborates on his philosophy, explaining just why a positive attitude to all matches can pay dividends and how much he, despite his reputation as a brilliant individualist, places a heavy reliance on the traditional skills of the game.Packed with examples from his own experiences, and illustrated with both photographs and diagrams, Ian’s book is a forceful affirmation of his view that cricket, played well, can be the most exciting game in the world.
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First published in 1989 by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd
Reprinted 1989, 1990
© Newschoice Ltd and Ian Botham 1989
Photographs courtesy of Adrian Murrell/All-Sport and Patrick Eagar
Illustrations by John Scorey
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Some images were not available for the electronic edition
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780002183153
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780007513086
Version: 2017-01-18
Table of Contents
Part One: How I Play My Cricket
2. The Start Of An Innings And How to Build It
1. Bowling Techniques – An Introduction
‘Give me a challenge and I’ll take it on.’ In this instance against the Australians – perhaps my favourite opponents.
The Headingley electronic scoreboard of 18 July 1981 flashed that historic bookmaking quotation of 500–1 against England beating Australia – and that is why I am writing this book. Not just to re-hash that famous England win, but to try to explain to all cricketers why they should never ever accept the result of any match as a foregone conclusion.
Cricket is just not like that, and although that Test match provided a once-in-a-lifetime fairy story ending, I have played in plenty of other matches where a game has suddenly been tilted unexpectedly because one player had the guts to attack against all the odds.
My approach to cricket is simple. Give me a challenge and I’ll take it on. If there’s no challenge, then I try to find one. I know my strengths – and weaknesses – and I have always set goals for myself from school right through to Test cricket. And when I’ve achieved something I set out to do, I immediately re-set the goalposts. That is the best way I know to sustain enthusiasm, and no matter at what level you play the game, there is so much more fun to be got out of cricket, if you give yourself something really demanding to aim at.
Never mind if you fail. Part of the point of sport is that there are winners and losers. What you have to do is to convince yourself that you are going to be a winner more often than not, and you’ll be surprised at what sometimes happens. In this book I shall try to explain the correct technical approach to every part of the game – batting, bowling, fielding, wicketkeeping, captaincy – but my main message will be much more fundamental.
The real basis of any cricketer’s success has got to be attitude, and I want to show how properly used aggression can help any player in the world.
From my early schooldays at Milford Junior School and Bucklers Mead School, I decided I wanted to be the best, and so I had to think, talk and play like the best. I am naturally aggressive – in fact, my whole way of life is based on aggression, mostly I hope of the right sort.
Like lots of kids, I wanted to bat and bowl so that I was always in the game, but most allrounders soon decide that is too much like hard work and so become batsmen who bowl, or the other way around. But by sticking at it, I gave myself the extra opportunity to be centre stage throughout a match with two strings to my bow.
The first actual coaching I remember was from a teacher, Ken Hibbert, when I was about eight or nine. It was all to do with the grip, and after all – just like golf – if you get the grip right you’ve got chances. Get it wrong, and just forget it, because it will lead to a repetition of basic errors which will prevent any consistent success.
Like every part of cricket,
