Ian Chappell denies physical confrontation with Ian Botham at Ashes
Renowned cricket commentator and former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has denied engaging in any physical confrontation with Ian Botham, former England Test captain and also a well-known commentator, during the second Test match
of the Ashes series.
Chappell was responding to a report in the Daily Mail, which had claimed that he and Botham "had to be pulled apart after a furious bust-up in the car park after the end of play on the fourth day in the Adelaide Test."
The report claimed that the two former cricketers were in the parking lot when "Chappell muttered something highly provocative as he went past. A surprised Botham turned around to retort: 'What did you say?' And after Chappell
made another incendiary remark, both of them dropped their bags and were at each others' throats before being quickly separated."
The Daily Mail’s report has added to the public’s perception of the bitter rivalry between Chappell and Botham, which began in 1977 when the two had a blow-out at a bar in Melbourne. As the story goes, Botham (then 21 years old
and playing club cricket in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746) overheard Chappell making snide remarks about the England cricket team and lost his temper. Chappell’s version of what happened next is that he walked away from the situation after a heated exchange of words, while Botham
claims that he punched Chappell.
Now the story seems to have repeated itself in the present-day, but Chappell has called the report a “well versed fairytale written by a guy at the London Daily Mail.”
“He regularly writes them for a living in his muck-raking column. What actually happened was a verbal exchange between Botham and myself. There was no physical confrontation,” Chappell wrote in a column for the Herald Sun, adding
that he and Botham were both equally to blame for the incident.
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