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

While cricketrsquos oldest battle is being fought in England where the 2023 Ashes has reached Game Two of the fiveTest series a 44year offfield clash was revived reignited and revisited Down UnderIan Chappell 79 and Ian Botham 67 recently sat facetoface 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 197677 seasonWhile Botham claimed that he had punched up Chappell the Australian great alleged that Botham threatened to cut him ldquoear to earrdquo with an empty bottleThose who know Chappell are wondering why did he agree to appear in the documentary ldquoI have my own reasons for doing a documentary that I knew was likely to involve some form of confrontationrdquo Chappell told middaycom on ThursdaySeveral have suggested they bury the hatchet but thatrsquos unlikely to happen mdash now more than ever ldquoThere 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 commonrdquo Chappell remarkedPromos of the show revealed that the tension among the two cricketing greats was palpable mdash right from the time they took their seats till Botham exiting first as Chappell stays on for a few momentsldquoThe confrontation was no fun but I didnrsquot want to avoid him Botham telling his usual lies without me putting my side of the storyrdquo Chappell addedBotham was in Australia in 197677 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 UniversityChappell who had retired from international cricket after the 197576 Test series against the West Indies was a big signee for North MelbourneChappell later came out of international retirement to play in Kerry Packerrsquos World Series Cricket in 197778 and made a Test comeback in 197980 the season in which he faced England and the West Indies England had Botham in their ranks but the duo canrsquot been called Ashes rivals as the urn was not at stake for that threeTest postPacker series which Australia won 30Back to 197677 Chappellrsquos club North Melbourne witnessed a 12th place finish in the competition and Bothamrsquos side ended up at the bottom in 16th position According to former Test star Keith Stackpolersquos report in the 1977 Australian Cricket Yearbook Botham scored just 44 runs and claimed only five wickets with his ldquogentle mediumpacersrdquo for UniversityChappell topped the batting charts for his club with 405 runs at 3682The other star recruit for North Melbourne was retired West Indies batting great Rohan Kanhai The excaptain was Chappellrsquos rival skipper on Australiarsquos 197273 tour of the CaribbeanThe ChappellBotham studio showdown will stay a talking point for a while ldquoVery disappointing to see a great English cricketer and a great Australian cricketer disliking each other so much after 46 yearsrdquo exAustralia paceman Rodney Hogg said on FacebookAlso Read Big Ashes question Can England ace Australiarsquos pace