1986-87 Ashes: Botham's Brisbane brilliance

After losing to India and New Zealand during the summer of 1986, hopes were not high for England's Ashes tour to Australia. But inspired by the brilliance of Ian Botham, an unexpected win at the Gabba laid the foundations for a wonderful winter.

Even by his standards, Ian Botham had crammed a lot into the twelve months before the start of the 1986/87 Ashes tour. A charity walk from John O'Groats to Land's End; an eventful and harrowing trip to the Caribbean; a two month ban in the English summer after he had admitted smoking cannabis; and his resignation from Somerset, after he felt betrayed at the treatment of his close friends Viv Richards and Joel Garner, who had been sacked by the county.

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1984: County Championship drama

Essex recently won their first County Championship in 25 years. But for sheer drama, surely nothing could match their 1984 triumph.

As far as I know, no one has ever written a film based on the County Championship. But if a budding writer wanted to take a step into uncharted territory, and pen the first Hollywood blockbuster on this subject, then the person involved would do themselves a big favour by taking a look at the events of the 1984 season. A campaign running from April to September, came down to the penultimate ball of a match in Somerset, with the fate of two counties hanging in the Taunton air.

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Sports videos of the 1980s

I've recently started the process of converting a number of my classic videos to DVD. So this week I'm taking a look back at some of my favourite sports videos of the 1980s. If you have any other suggestions, then please feel free to add them to the comments section.

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1986: The tied Test

Australia will soon be touring India to take part in a four Test series, but it is hard to imagine any of their matches being quite as dramatic and exciting as the 1986 Madras Test.

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1984/85: England in India

This piece is a shortened version of my previous blogs on England's tour to India in 1984/85, which can be found here and here.

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1984: England v Sri Lanka

It was supposed to be a consolation victory coming at the end of a demoralising summer for England in 1984. A single crumb of comfort to digest before David Gower's physically and mentally damaged team departed for a tour of India in the winter. Yet the famine stretched on. The one-off Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's ended up leaving more questions than answers.

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1980s: Sporting objects

This week I am taking a look back at some of the objects that featured in sporting events of the 1980s, including a certain confectionery stall that has gone down in Ashes folklore, an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, a lucky mascot, an unwanted golfing obstacle, and a much maligned football trophy.

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An Ode to Billy Joel

Something a little different for my last blog of the year, and apologies if this is not your cup of tea, but this week I am paying tribute to my love of sport in the 1980s by butchering Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire.