How the 4 great All-Rounders of the 80's fared against one another

Supremely talented and enormously confident, Rohan Kanhai and Garry Sobers were up against one another during West Indies' tour to Australia in 1960/61, to see who scored the most runs.

It is said that the competition got so stiff, both on and off the field, that Frank Worrell had to intervene and redirect their focus

Although emphasised a lot as a team sport, Cricket has always had space for individual brilliance which in turn has fostered competition within players from the same teams or across them.

In that respect, the game of cricket has never been as blessed as it was in the 1980s when there were four all-rounders jostling not only for being the best amongst themselves but also for a place in the all-time list.

But these cricketers were special, not only because of their stellar records but also because of their longevity (Each played more than 86 tests), there were great allrounders before them but no one (apart from Garry Sobers, who was in all fairness a batting all-rounder) played more than 63 tests (Richie Benaud).

Moreover, these four cricketers meant so much for their teams, that numbers in themselves would not be able to justify.

As India's first, and still the greatest, genuine fast bowler and a world cup winning captain; Kapil was the uncompromising, aggressive personality who paved the way for the modern Indian cricketer/s like Sehwag and Kohli.

Hadlee was New Zealand's greatest ever match winner whose exploits propelled the hopes of an entire nation. He was perhaps the only genuine international class cricketer in his team until Martin Crowe came along.

Imran Khan is, as Waqar Younis once said, the dictionary of Pakistan Cricket. Many of its greatest cricketers like Wasim Akram, Waqar himself, Abdul Qadir, Inzamam Ul Haq (to name a few) owe much of their success to him.

Ian Botham was the talisman who could single-handedly win matches, demonstrated no better than in the 1981 ashes where his magical performances with both bat and ball won England the series they were least expected to.

Botham's presence infused self-belief in a team that was overawed all too easily.

I have often come across statements made by these men where they admitted to keeping a watch on the other's performances, and elevating their respective games when playing against one another.

To what extent did they do the latter is what I intend to explore in the pages ahead

#1 Kapil Dev and Imran Khan

Imran edged Kapil in both Batting and Bowling

Imran Khan and Kapil dev played against one another in 23 test matches, most of them in the 1980s as it was perhaps the only decade when India and Pakistan did not fight a war with either weapons or words.

There is a telling difference in the batting records, where Imran towers over Dev, averaging 52 to Dev's 29.8 with three centuries compared to 0 for Dev.

Dev's below-par performances can partly be attributed to Pakistan having a better bowling line-up where Imran was supported by Sarfaraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

Whereas Dev had to ply almost on his own with little or no quality support around, allowing Batsmen to play him with caution while scoring merrily against other bowlers.

On the bowling front, however, the comparison is less skewed. Although Deev took 14 fewer wickets than Khan, he more than held his own against a batting line-up that feasted on Indian bowlers like hungry sharks.

This was most evident during Pakistan's tour of India in 1980-81 when Kapil's 32 wickets gave India the series 2-0.

Dev was effective on Pakistani soil as well, his 8-85 in the Lahore test included a legendary opening spell where amongst one of his casualties was Majid Khan, who could barely put bat to ball and was famously dropped by Imran in the next test.

Khan, on the other hand, pulverized the Indians during their 1982-83 tour to Pakistan with a staggering 40 wickets in six tests.

Khan's record is magnified significantly by this performance. This just preceded the shin injury that kept him out of action for two years.

#2 Imran Khan and Ian Botham

Imran has better numbers to show than Botham

Two towering characters, who were rivals not only on the field but off it as well since their most famous (and fractious) confrontation came when Botham and Allan Lamb filed a libel case against Khan, claiming that in an interview with India Today, Khan had called them racist, not properly educated and of an inferior social standing. Imran was eventually awarded the case in a hearing on Aug 1996.

The story is no different on the field as well as Imran emerges the clear victor in both departments.

Khan and Botham played against each other in eight tests, all of which were played in England in 1982 and 1987.

And England is a place where Imran feels most at home, having plied his trade for many years in the county circuit with Worcestershire and Sussex.

Khan averages 50.4 with the bat, compared to Botham's 30.4, and 20.1 with the ball as against Botham's 36.4, who was a mere shadow of himself in 1987, having peaked very early in his career.

But Khan had no problems whatsoever, for it was during the 1987 series that he became the first Pakistani bowler to take 300 test wickets, and he capped it off nicely with a century (118) at the Oval in the 5th test.

Botham, nevertheless, dismissed Khan two times during the eight tests, whereas Imran dislodged him only once.

#3 Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee

Botham tops batting, while Hadlee edges him in Bowling

In the 14 matches, they played together, Botham scored 830 runs at 43.7 including three centuries whereas Hadlee scored 563 runs at 25.7 with the highest score of 99.

At the height of his powers, Botham was easily the best batsmen of the four allrounders. A devastating, attacking batsman who could take the game away in a session of brutal hitting. This ability he put to good use against a relatively weak New Zealand bowling powered only by Hadlee.

Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan - An Overview

In bowling, however, the competition is stiff with Hadlee edging out Botham on wickets (63 vs 61) and average (23.3 vs 24.4) only slightly.

It is ironic, however, that in New Zealand's first test win in England at Leeds in 1983, Hadlee played his part as a batsman (75 in NZ first innings) as it were Lance Cairns and Evan Chatfield who did the damage with the ball.

Botham, however, dismissed Hadlee six times in tests compared to three times that Hadlee got Botham.

#4 Kapil Dev vs Richard Hadlee

In Low scoring contests, Hadlee a better bowler — Hadlee emerges as a better wicket-taker than Kapil

Dev and Hadlee played in nine tests against one another. Hadlee, as was the case with Botham, is clearly a better bowler than Kapil, perhaps because six out of the nine matches were played in New Zealand where Hadlee could exploit the home advantage.

The batting records of the two all-rounders have nothing much between them. Although on the lower end of the spectrum, Hadlee nevertheless had a slightly better average than Kapil (18.6 vs 14.5) and passed fifty once (87 at Auckland in 1989-90) where Kapil failed to pass that landmark even once.

Kapil Dev vs Richard Hadlee - An Overview

#5 Imran Khan vs Richard Hadlee

Along with being great all-rounders, Khan and Hadlee were pioneering bowlers too. Imran took the art of reverse swing (at times using controversial tacts) to its heights whereas Hadlee's forte was unerring accuracy that earned him the then-record 36 five-fors.

A comparison of their numbers brings out a fairly surprising result. While Imran was justifiably a better batsman than Hadlee, it emerges that Imran was a better bowler averaging 7 points lesser than his Kiwi counterpart.

It Helped of course that the Pakistani batsmen made merry on their 1989-90 tour to New Zealand, taking full toll of the deflated Kiwi attack operating hopelessly on flat wickets.

Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan - An Overview

#6 Kapil Dev vs Ian Botham

India's tour to England in 1982 is historic for the fact that in no other series in cricket history have two of the world's best all-rounders competed for one-upmanship on a pound-for-pound basis.

By 1982 Botham was at his absolute peak, whereas Dev's batting form had withered away after a promising start and people had started to have serious doubts about his batting ability.

Botham also produced a once in a lifetime performance vs India in the Jubilee test at Kolkata in 1980 (13 wickets and 114 runs). Dev, it seems, was under pressure to make it count with both bat and ball.

But Dev answered his critics in the most emphatic manner possible as he toyed with the England bowling with a Viv Richards like brilliance.

This was exhibited best in the first test at Lord's where following on in the third innings, Kapil was en route to scoring the fastest test century of all time when he was dismissed for a 55 ball 89 (including a casual hoick for six over square leg off Ian Botham), and by the way, this was following a five-wicket haul in the first innings.

Ian Botham responded promptly with a belligerent 208 in the 3rd test at the Oval, taking a heavy toll of Dev in the process. At the time, it was the fastest double century in tests. Not to be out-done, Dev responded with a brilliant 97 off 93 balls.

Botham and Dev ended the series as the top two run scorers (403 and 292 respectively) whereas Kapil took 10 wickets to Botham's nine. Dev was awarded the man of the series on the ground that he faced a tougher opposition.

Fortunately, there are videos of these virtuoso performances available on YouTube which I would urge the reader to watch to see the two brilliant all-rounders going at it.

Although Dev has a fantastic batting average of 41.2 while playing against Botham, he is still eclipsed by Botham's Bradman-like average of 70.6, helped mainly by the 448 runs he accumulated during England's 1981 tour of India.

It should be remembered however that at this point, Botham was the best bowler and the best batsman in the England team with more wickets and runs than both Willis and Gower.

Dev meanwhile had Gavaskar, Vengsakar and Viswanath preceding him in the batting line up. Although he was back to his brilliant best on the 1990 tour to England, Botham didn't play in that series else Kapil's record would have been better

There is little to separate in terms of bowling as Dev took 51 wickets to Botham's 59. Kapil, although conceded 10 more runs than Botham's 26.4.

Botham, it emerges, had better numbers in both departments but Kapil's flashes of brilliance do not seem to relegate him so far behind.