Exclusive: Allan Lamb Narrates Ian Botham Salvo Which Inspired 'Worst' English Side To Ashes 1986-87 Triumph

Graham Gooch would play the West Indies pace attack like no one else. He scored more runs than anyone when the West Indies dominated Test cricket. But even Gooch could not save England at their worst in 1986. It began with Patrick Patterson inspiring the West Indies to a 10-wicket win at Sabina Park. Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Patterson continued to terrorize the English batsmen, who hardly knew how to deal with pain, and went on to clinch the series 5-0. It was a devastating result for the Englishmen against the Viv Richards-led side as David Gower subsequently lost his captaincy.

Mike Gatting then took charge of the English side but there looked to be no difference in their approach. England continued to lose their warm-up games Down Under. English newspapers had written them off. They were called the worst ‘English side’ ever, which can’t bat, bowl or field and the criticism came right before the Brisbane Test in 1986-87.

Allan Lamb: Ian Botham called a meeting ahead of the Brisbane Test

But it seemed like one of ‘tallest’ figure in the side Ian Botham had enough. The English players had a meeting, a night before the Brisbane Test, where Botham launched a salvo on his players and asked them to pull up their socks. Allan Lamb, a key member of the side, who scored 1138 runs in the Ashes at an average over 34 narrated the entire scenario in an exclusive interview.

“That was big…we had just beaten Australia in England when David Gower was captain and we had a great series there. We played West Indies in the middle and did badly and David Gower lost his captaincy, then (Mike) Gatting and (John) Emburey took over and so we went to a little bit sort of…. David was unhappy with the captaincy and we didn’t… David was batting three and me four. Then we had a shocking start, we lost to everyone,” Allan Lamb told Cricket Addictor.

“Before start of the Test match in Brisbane, we had a meeting the night before, the English papers had gone before, the English papers said this was the worst English side, we can’t bat, we can’t bowl, we can’t field. That was it.

Ian Botham then said, right okay guys, we have got to now start playing, forget about all these fun games, warm-up games, it starts now and then history was history…. we beat Australia and then went on to beat Australia, we beat them in one-day after that, the side just gelled together, which was really good,” he added.

The night before the Brisbane Test made all the difference as England went on to clinch the Ashes Down Under. A side which was written off came back in style to win the series 2-1 in 1986-87.