Aidan11 wrote:D/L wrote:Aidan11 wrote:D/L wrote:Several of these options are/were better bowlers than Botham.
we tend to forget that quite a few of the world's best batsmen were playing for Packer when Botham took many of his wickets.
Any road up, Gough, Caddick, Anderson, Hoggard.
No they weren't. Botham made his test debut in the same season when it all kicked off with Packer. Within three years most of those players were back. Botham hadn't even had his Headingley moment by then.
Three years when he wasn't up against the best in the world then.
Out of a test career that spanned 15 years. You will also note that during those 3 years England didn't have a test against the West Indies so when he faced them it was always the strongest possible side that also happened to be the best test side by far at the time.
A significant chunk, then.