Former cricketer Ian Botham received a knighthood for his services to charity and cricket in the 2007 Birthday Honours and a life peerage in 2020, becoming Baron Botham, of Ravensworth in the County of North Yorkshire. However, back in his playing days, in 1981, he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year after an extraordinary summer of Test cricket that became known, quite rightly, as ‘Botham’s Ashes’.
Botham began the summer as England captain but, after losing the First Test at Trent Bridge by four wickets and bagging a pair in the drawn Second Test at Lord’s – which took his record to 12 winless matches in charge – he resigned the captaincy and was replaced by the previous incumbent, Mike Brearley, for the Third Test at Headingley. What followed has become the stuff of legend.
In the first innings, Australia made 401/9 declared and, having made just 174 all out in reply, England followed on and were precariously poised at 135-7 in the second innings. However, Botham went on to make 149 not out, including stands of 117 with Graham Dilley (56) and 67 with Chris Old (29), batting at number nine and number 10, respectively, to give England a lead of 129. In the second innings, Bob Willis took a mesmerising 8-43, reducing Australia to 111 all out and giving England an unlikely victory by 18 runs.
In the Fourth Test at Edgbaston, Australia were set a target of 151 in their second innings, but Botham took 5/14, including 5/1 in 28 balls, to dismiss the tourists for just 121. In the Fifth Test at Old Trafford, Botham was out for a duck in the first innings, but made 118 from 102 balls in the second, helping England to a 103-run win and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. Botham took 10 wickets in the drawn Sixth Test at the Oval and was named Player of the Series, with 399 runs and 34 wickets to his name.
Botham did not attend the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award ceremony, having alreay departed for a six-Test tour of India, but was presented with a replica trophy by former England captain Mike Brearley. Snooker player Steve Davis finished second and athlete Sebastian Coe third in the public vote.