Gough can help revive the magic of '81

When he looks at England's present Ashes plight, Ian Botham reckons he can see a few parallels with 1981. "And I'd like to think with all this hype flying around about that series that a bit of magic could rub off," he says. Starting with the Second Test at Lord's on Thursday, so say all of us.

He is not of the F S Trueman school of destruction. As a commentator, just as when he played, he accentuates the positive. He'll say when he thinks a team made a "pig's ear of it" and, as the First Test was being won at a canter by Steve Waugh's men, he was not shy in telling us that England had underperformed.

"Yet I'd like to think history can repeat itself," he said. "Twenty years ago, we lost the First Test and won the series. I honestly think still that anything can happen, that they can give the Aussies a run for their money. Like every Englishman, that's what I want to see." In 1981, the Lord's Test marked a desperate point in Botham's career. His captaincy once again under fire after the loss of the one-day series and the First Test, he trudged back to the pavilion after bagging his second duck of the match at HQ to be met by the cold shoulder from MCC members.

Within an hour of the match's end, he had resigned as skipper, paving the way for Mike Brearley's return and his own renaissance. "Brears asked me, 'Do you still want to play at Headingley?' and I looked at him in astonishment and said, 'Of course'," recalls Botham. "'Good', said Brears, 'because I think you'll get 200 runs and 10 wickets'."

He wasn't far wrong, but the fact that the Lord's match had ended in a draw was in its own way a turning point too. Botham thinks a similar solid result in this Test would be the platform for another recovery, even though he accepts that the class of 2001 could do with throwing up its own hero. Step forward, then, Darren Gough. "Hopefully, he can be the spark to ignite England," says Botham. "Goughie always wants to be out there in the middle, always backs himself and that's the way I was. A little bit of magic from him on the first morning at Lord's, four or five quick wickets, and who knows?"

Of course, he knows the order is tall. Botham rates this the best Australian team ever to visit England, even above Bradman's 1948 Invincibles. As for being the best team in history? "Well, wouldn't it have been wonderful to see this lot against the West Indies of the late 70s, early 80s," says Botham. "I'd have paid a lot of money to watch.

"I love the way Waugh's team goes about its business. They've got seven top batsmen, all capable of scoring big runs and scoring them fast. They entertain while thinking nothing else but win, win, win. But they're not unbeatable and if England's players go in with the right attitude, it's far from over." Botham, grudgingly admired by Aussies for the bullish nature of his game, secretly can't resist them, either. "Twelve months ago a country with a population smaller than that of Greater London held 13 World Cups in different sports. What does that tell you about them? They play it bloody hard, don't give an inch and don't expect one, and if they're on top, they know how to rub your noses in it. And that's the way sport should be played."

One thing they clearly can't cope with, though, is the Botham barbecue. On the Saturday night of the Headingley '81 Test, with England seemingly beyond salvation, both teams ended up sampling Both's hospitality at his home in Epworth, near Scunthorpe. While the Aussies left at midnight, Botham drank on until 4am, yet when play resumed on Monday, it was his guests who looked hungover as Beefy caned them for 145. Right, so whose bright idea was it to abandon Test rest days?