In an exclusive extract from his new book Original Spin, Vic Marks talks about the tensions that tore his county team apart in 1986
Shockwaves were felt across Somerset at the end of the 1986 season when the club announced that their overseas players, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, would be replaced by Martin Crowe, with the inevitable consequence of Ian Botham’s departure.
Somerset had finished 16th in the championship and there was a critical loss to Lancashire in the second round of the NatWest Trophy in July. Defeat in that competition at that stage of the season condemned a county side, which was struggling in the other competitions, to another trophy-less season. That was always when the mumbling started in the committee rooms.
Written by Vic Marks
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jun/23/vic-marks-original-spin-book-extract-somerset-botham-richards under the title “Botham, Richards and Garner’s dramatic Somerset exit: the inside story | Vic Marks”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
