There won’t be reconciliation, says Ian Chappell in old Botham clash

Botham is unlikely to apologise for his lies, former Australia captain tells mid-day.com that

While cricket’s oldest battle is being fought in England, where the 2023 Ashes has reached Game Two of the five-Test series, a 44-year off-field clash was revived, reignited and revisited Down Under.

Ian Chappell (79) and Ian Botham (67) recently sat face-to-face at The Longest Feud show, put out by Channel Nine.  At the heart of the documentary is a story of bar fight between the two Ians at Melbourne in the 1976-77 season. 

While Botham claimed that he had punched up Chappell, the Australian great alleged that Botham threatened to cut him “ear to ear” with an empty bottle.

Those who know Chappell are wondering why did he agree to appear in the documentary. “I have my own reasons for doing a documentary that I knew was likely to involve some form of confrontation,” Chappell told mid-day.com on Thursday.

Several have suggested they bury the hatchet, but that’s unlikely to happen — now more than ever. “There will be no reconciliation as he [Botham] is unlikely to apologise for lying and I also find him an extremely boring person with whom I have nothing in common,” Chappell remarked.

Promos of the show revealed that the tension among the two cricketing greats was palpable — right from the time they took their seats till Botham exiting first as Chappell stays on for a few moments.

“The confrontation was no fun, but I didn’t want to avoid him [Botham] telling his usual lies without me putting my side of the story,” Chappell added.

Botham was in Australia in 1976-77 on a scholarship to play club cricket along with his future England teammates Mike Gatting and Graham Stevenson (deceased). Botham played for a club called University.

Chappell, who had retired from international cricket after the 1975-76 Test series against the West Indies, was a big signee for North Melbourne.

Chappell later came out of international retirement to play in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in 1977-78 and made a Test comeback in 1979-80, the season in which he faced England and the West Indies. England had Botham in their ranks, but the duo can’t been called Ashes rivals as the urn was not at stake for that three-Test post-Packer series which Australia won 3-0.

Back to 1976-77. Chappell’s club, North Melbourne witnessed a 12th place finish in the competition and Botham’s side ended up at the bottom, in 16th position. According to former Test star Keith Stackpole’s report in the 1977 Australian Cricket Yearbook, Botham scored just 44 runs and claimed only five wickets with his “gentle medium-pacers” for University.

Chappell topped the batting charts for his club with 405 runs at 36.82. 

The other star recruit for North Melbourne was retired West Indies batting great Rohan Kanhai. The ex-captain was Chappell’s rival skipper on Australia’s 1972-73 tour of the Caribbean.

The Chappell-Botham studio showdown will stay a talking point for a while. “Very disappointing to see a great English cricketer and a great Australian cricketer disliking each other so much after 46 years,” ex-Australia paceman Rodney Hogg said on Facebook. 

Also Read: Big Ashes question: Can England ace Australia’s pace?

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