Botham the best allrounder, Sachin the greatest batsman : Cairns

Dubai, July 11 (UNI) Chris Cairns, who was described by Shane Warne as the best allrounder in the world, feels that this crown only belongs to the former England captain Ian Botham.

Cairns who finished his test career with averages very similar to Botham said, ''In my view Ian Botham tops the list. He has won more matches and could easily turn a match with his effort.'' Botham's batting and bowling averages were 33.34 and 28.40 while Cairns' had 33.53 and 29.40 as his batting and bowling averages at retirement.

The Kiwi allrounder, who announced his retirement from One Day cricket in a tear-filled press conference On January 22, 2006, continuing his list of top allrounders with, ''Imran Khan is next as the Pakistani allrounder could bat at number 4 and also used to open the bowling.'' ''Third in my list is Kapil Dev, simply because the man took so many wickets and mostly on the sub-continent pitches which are not too helpful to pace,'' he was quoted as saying by the 'Gulf News'.

He picked Tendulkar as the greatest batsman of modern times and among bowlers it was Wasim Akram.

UNI