A knighthood in the Queen's birthday honours list for Ian Botham, England's most famous cricketer. It's as much for his charity work as for his heroic efforts for England in the late 1970s and early 1980s but anyone of a certain age remembers the summer of 1981 and the series against Australia which will forever be known as 'Botham's Ashes'.

Despite the fact that his unbeaten 149 at Headingley is invariably seen as his finest hour, he himself admitted that it was a glorious fluke. In truth, he was a better bowler than a batsman but his unshakeable self-belief and his insistence that he could do anything on and off the field turned him into one of the most exciting cricketers of all time. His knighthood is well-deserved.