09 December,2010 08:38 AM IST | | Ashley Mallett
The Ian Chappell vs Botham car park clash has become the most amusing off-field story of ashes 2010-11. MiD DAY traces the history of their raging rivalry Ian Chappell Ian Botham
Ian Chappell's clashes with Don Bradman were always verbal and never heated. His relationship with Ian Botham was something entirely different. Botham and Chappell never quite hit it off.
There are two versions of the clash the pair had at the Melbourne Cricket Ground bar back in the summer of 1976-77. Chappell had quit South Australia to play club cricket for North Melbourne. That same summer Botham was in Australia on a Whitbread scholarship and was contracted for a season with the University Club. Botham has not wavered from his version of events, as told to Peter Hayter in Botham: My autobiography:
One night I was drinking in a bar with players from both sides when I overheard Chappell giving it the typical Aussie verbals and rubbishing England. In fact, he was getting so full of himself that it would have been impossible for me not to overhear him. I didn't like what he was saying and I told him in so many words, warning him that if he carried on there would be trouble. I don't know if Chappell was aware of my reputation for thinking with my fists or whether he was intentionally goading me, but in any case, he went on and on. Three times I warned him and three times he ignored me. Finally, I could take no more so I threw a punch at him. The impact sent him flying over a table into a group of Aussie Rules footballers, whose drink was scattered to all parts.
Botham further alleges that Chappell fled and that he followed in pursuit, hurdling the bonnet of a car in his mad chase but fell away at the sight of a police car. Botham denies having gone after Chappell with a bottle or an empty glass.
Ian Chappell remembers the night. By the time he got to the MCG bar, Chappell says:
Botham had obviously had a few beers and he was having a lot to say in a very loud voice. He made a couple of comments and I can't remember exactly what they were, but Botham had said something about an Australian player to which I responded: "Yeah, you're a typical county player, you're the sort of player who thinks that if an Australian hasn't been to England and played county cricket, he can't play. You think the only guy who can play in the Australian side is Greg Chappell because he played two years for Somerset.
'That's right,' he said.
"We'll you blokes wouldn't know shit from a bull's foot.
And he said to me, 'The reason you're not going to England next year is because too many blokes are looking to knock your block off.'
'Oh yeah? Who are all those fast bowlers in England who are going to knock my block off? You've got a lot of fast bowlers, haven't you?'
So it degenerated to that extent... The following Friday night I was leaning back in my chair (at the MCG bar) and I had my feet up on the underneath part of the table. He must have been sitting really close to me and I was getting annoyed by him, so I started to say a few things. I wasn't making personal comments, it was really more about county cricket. At some stage he said, 'Everyone's looking for you in county cricket, because you are a p'''k. You abused me when Australia played Somerset. I came in at number eleven and I can take a bit of abuse, but you kept at me and at me, and in the end when you said to me, 'Does your mother f''k?' - that's when I got really angry'.
Chappell knew that he had not played against Botham at Somerset and a long argument followed, but Botham could not be persuaded. Eventually, he lost his temper completely, grabbed an empty beer glass and pressed it against Chappell's cheek.
I'll f''''ng cut you from ear to ear,' Botham said. I said, 'Son, that won't f''''ng impress me very much. In fact, I would say that would be an act of cowardice. I'll tell you what would impress me - if you cut me with a cricket ball. And you'll get every chance tomorrow because I'll make sure I bat for as long as I can and give you every f''''ng chance. But I'll just give you one tip. You better do it with a cricket ball that bounces. If you try doing it with a beamer, you had better make it a f''''ng good one because if I can get up I'll get down the other end and I'll hit you over the head with the f''''ng bat. Then he pushed me backwards off the chair and got hysterically angry. 'C'mon let's fight,' he yelled
'Look, I don't fight. Fighting is stupidity. If you lose the fight you go to hospital and if you win the fight you go to jail. And I have no intention of going to either of those places over a c'''t like you.'
And it was about that stage when the pub was closing up ufffd He said he chased me through the car park, and it's crap. We were in a bar - a narrow two-storey building. There is no car park. You have the Hilton Hotel at the back of this bar and the (front) door leads straight out onto the main road. I've never been out the back of this bar. There is no car park as far as I am aware. We went out the front door, onto the main road. By the time we got out onto the footpath Botham's going berserk - he's f''''ng off his tree and he's yelling crazy things, and I'd had enough of this shit... He starts coming behind me and Ian Callen (Australia player) grabbed him from behind and told him to settle down.
I have actually called Botham an 'habitual liar' on radio and he hasn't done anything about it. I was in the States at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta in 1995. I can't even remember why the BBC man was interviewing me about it, but he asked me about Botham. I said, 'Look mate, I'm sick of talking about Botham, he is an habitual liar. I was looking right at this bloke (the interviewer) and I could see the look on his face when I called Botham an habitual liar. I had called Botham a liar before, but I had never called him an habitual liar, which is pretty serious. Anyhow, when we finished the interview I said to guy from the BBC, and I knew him from cricket, 'You've got a bit of a problem, haven't you?' 'Mmmm, yes I have yeah.'u00a0
You've got a decision to make. I'll meet you here tomorrow, because I'll be interested to hear what your decision is.'
Next day he comes up and I ask him, 'Well, what decision did you make?'
"Well, I played it."
In 1996, Ian Botham and former England teammate Alan Lamb sued former Pakistani star all-rounder Imran Khan for alleged libel. Botham and Lamb lost the case. Eight years on there was a subsequent High Court challenge over costs.
Somebody sent me (Chappell) a clipping of one of the English newspapers covering the trial and (in it) Imran's QC said, 'that was a lie.' Botham backed off a bit, then the QC said, 'well, you have a history of lying don't you, Mr Botham?'
Botham and Chappellu00a0 were once interviewed for A Current Affair by Ray Martin on Channel Nine and the bad blood between them was brought out.
At the end of it, I'll never forget, Ray said to Botham, 'Oh well, you still have a drink at the end of a day's play.' And Botham replied, 'Yeah, that's cricket mate. You sit down and have a beer, or wine.'
Ray turned to me and said, 'You'll be having a drink with him after the commentary is over? And I said, 'No Ray. I can find plenty of decent people to have a drink with. I won't be drinking with him.'
