MY SPORTING HEROESBOTHAMHIS 50 GREATEST FROM BRITAN AND IRELANDSir Ian Botham
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Copyright Sir Ian Botham, 2009
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First published in Great Britain in 2009 by
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ISBN 9781845964870
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To every young sportsman and woman with a passion
to make sport their life this is the fun you can have.
It is better than working.
INTRODUCTION
It takes a lot to reach the top in any walk of life and sport is no different. There are all sorts of champions out there in wildly different sports, but the characteristics that go into making a world-beater rarely change from one sport to the next.
Be it the bravery to take on the worlds fastest and meanest bowlers or the dedication to get up and train at some ungodly hour six days a week just to row for 2,000 metres once every four years, the qualities are there in most top-class sportsmen. Nearly every person in this book has got the same traits of determination, skill and passion and it has been tough to try and suggest which category best suits some of them when the bare truth is they could fit into any one of the categories. What I have tried to do is suggest which traits I think are stronger in them and of course that is all open to debate.
Throughout my sporting life I have been very lucky to play with and associate with some of the biggest and most successful names in British and Irish sport and as a result have met some remarkable people. Some have impressed me with their deeds on the field alone, whilst others have gone up in my estimation as Ive come to know them over a period of time, and so in this selection of my top 50 heroes, both angles have been taken into account.
It is a very personal list and by no means a definitive guide to the sporting successes of Great Britain and Ireland over the past 50 years, but I do hope many of you will agree with some of my selections and if you dont, perhaps it will spark some debate as to who you would rate higher in a given sport.
That is the beauty of sport, where arbitrary success such as winning a game of football might come second to the outrageous skills of a George Best or Paul Gascoigne because sport involves matters of the heart as well as the head.
It has been a real pleasure to think long and hard about which sportsmen or woman would make it into this list and the longer Ive deliberated the more proud I am of what our region has given to the sporting world. We have provided so many world champions in so many sports that it would take a set of encyclopaedias just to list them and that is a heritage to celebrate.
Whether you are rugby fan, a cricket fan or a motor sport fan there has been and there will be someone for you to cheer and that will never end thanks to the talented people all around us.
I hope you enjoy reading this book and not just my thoughts on these sporting heroes but also in many cases their own theories on what it took to get them where they are. They are all not too different from each other really, but they are all certainly special in their own right.
Enjoy the book.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON
LEADERSHIP
I have so much admiration for Alex Ferguson. For nearly 25 years he has guided Manchester United from trophy to trophy without stopping for breath a feat that leaves me a little tired just thinking about it!
His move into management at a young age was a bold statement of intent, but to then work his way to United and survive while commanding the respect that he has done over the years as the manager of the biggest club in the world is remarkable.
He had ability as a player, but it is fair to say he wasnt the greatest footballing talent to play the game. He knocked in his fair share of goals as a striker in the Scottish league for Dunfermline and Rangers amongst others, but when he retired from playing in 1974, his true calling in football was just about to get under way.
He cut his teeth as a manager at East Stirlingshire and then St Mirren, where he had a taste of second-tier success as first division champions in 1977. It was his move to Aberdeen though that caught the attention as he guided them to the Scottish Premier League title in 1980 to end the dominance of Rangers and Celtic. It turned out to be just the first of three league titles as well as four Scottish Cups that he won there, but I can remember the real news being when they triumphed in the European Cup Winners Cup and that was when I really noticed who Fergie was and what he was doing. So when he took over at Manchester United in 1986 having shunned one or two other English clubs, I thought this could be a career worth paying attention to, and so it has proved.
For him to have stayed at the helm of that ship in this day and age when demand for instant success has managers moving through clubs quicker than an Andrew Flintoff bouncer is a testament to his skill as a leader and decision maker.
The requirements of the chairmen, the fans and the media in football is intolerable and it often surprises me how anyone can work in such a high-pressure environment when so many chips are stacked against you, but that is the beauty of top-flight sport and it is what gets the blood pumping as a player. Sir Alex Ferguson has still got that blood pumping at this stage in his life and that is great to see.
Occasionally weve talked about just how bizarre the current footballing world is and he is honest enough to acknowledge that if he were starting his Premier League career today at any club other than Manchester United and had the same start as he did back in the mid-80s he probably wouldnt have lasted. He says it is madness how quickly managers these days are expected to deliver a title-winning team in the blink of an eye when it takes time to do things properly and I agree with him. Yes, he buys in talented players like Dimitar Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo, but they are being placed on top of some very sound foundations with an academy, backroom staff and club officials all sharing his ethos for success. It is why the rest of the Premier League clubs will always be chasing Manchester United, because it takes more than money to build success.
Fergie has taken his leadership of the team and the club to an astonishing level and that is what I admire most about him. He sets the standards, the work ethic and as a decision maker is not afraid to make the big calls. Whether youre a player or a manager you have to stand by the decisions you make and time and again Fergie has put the team above all else in letting the likes of Paul Ince, David Beckham and Jaap Stam leave the club when they still had more to give. Those decisions could have backfired, but he stood firm, continued to be successful and as a result retained and increased the amount of respect his players and those in the game have for him.
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