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[Bats_Entertainment]

Botham was a better bowler than Stokes for perhaps 20% of his England career. Many, many times I saw him run in looking unfit, half-hearted and distinctly medium pace (although it has to be said he maintained a happy knack of getting wickets with bad balls).

[LBWCandidate]

To be compared to great all-rounders, questions are
1) Would you pick Stokes just as a bowler?
2) Would you pick him just as a batsman?

Regardless, he is brilliant on his day.

[procricket]

To be compared to great all-rounders, questions are
1) Would you pick Stokes just as a bowler?
2) Would you pick him just as a batsman?

Regardless, he is brilliant on his day.

Kallis-Sobers

[brokenbat]

Botham the greatest all-rounder of all time? What a load of rubbish!

Botham wasn't even close. http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/40560.html

Imran was easily top of "the four" (best overall record and phenomenal record in his last 10 years - 50 with bat and 19 with ball!)....and sobers way ahead.

[SOULMAN1012]

Botham the greatest all-rounder of all time? What a load of rubbish!

Couldn't agree more Kallis for me is the best allrounder in my time and then you have R Hadlee and K Dev before that were easily above botham and that's before you look any further, botham is certainly one of England's greatest allrounders which is still a fantastic achievement

[Biggie Smalls]

botham was a matchwinner and in the top handful of allrounders ever . but at times he was a fat medium pacer.
sobers , kallis , miller , dev , khan are before botham in my books. then you could argue gilchrist should be in the list too .
stokes has the potential , but then again so did flintoff . you just have to wait and see if stokes becomes more consistent and can do it for 10 more years... or if he gets injuries , doesn't elvolve a player more etc. at the same time in his career people were saying flintoff was better than botham.  post career , although flintoff was a great cricketer , i dont think you could say he was better than botham.

[Bats_Entertainment]

Imran was easily top of "the four" (best overall record and phenomenal record in his last 10 years - 50 with bat and 19 with ball!)....and sobers way ahead.

Agree. For much of that era I'd have taken any of the other three over Botham.

[procricket]

imagine a Kallis-Khan hybrid or a kallis-hadlee who I think was the best bowler out of any of the player mentioned.

[procricket]

http://sporteology.com/top-10-greatest-all-rounders-in-cricket/

[Bats_Entertainment]

If we're doing hybrids, couldn't we just have one batsman and one bowler combined? Say Tendulkar/ Warne?

[beaver5]

We all have our personal opinions I guess. Yes Botham was unfit at times but he played at a time when you could get away with it. Khan and Hadlee were truly great bowlers but not quite as good with the bat. I never really saw much of Kapil Dev and too young to see the great Sobers. Kallis is a good choice and was a brilliant batsman. His bowling record is excellent but he wasn't always a front line bowler.

Surprising that the Aussies have never produced a world class all rounder up with those mentioned.

[Biggie Smalls]

We all have our personal opinions I guess. Yes Botham was unfit at times but he played at a time when you could get away with it. Khan and Hadlee were truly great bowlers but not quite as good with the bat. I never really saw much of Kapil Dev and too young to see the great Sobers. Kallis is a good choice and was a brilliant batsman. His bowling record is excellent but he wasn't always a front line bowler.

Surprising that the Aussies have never produced a world class all rounder up with those mentioned.

Um .... Keith Miller ?

[alexhilly1492]

Jenning gone for 48... but westley gone into hard earned 50!

[Seniorplayer]

Sobers 
What couldn't he do

[Seniorplayer]

Are you looking at it through rose tinted "everything was better back in my day" glasses though?

While Botham's bowling was probably better, I'd have Stokes as his all round game offers more. It's obviously unfair to compare like for like with the generations difference between them, but Stokes is a better fielder & athlete than Botham.

Better fielder ? Botham had over 100 test match catches the fastest to 100 wickets and 1000 runs always dominant.