Cricketing greats Ian Chappell and Ian Botham have been involved in a feud that has often been described as the cricket’s longest one. So much so that in 2023, Australian TV channel Channel Nine released a documentary detailing the account in ‘The Longest Feud’.
In this piece we look at what has gone about between the two Ians and why their spat became such a long-standing one with no chance of reconciliation despite all the water that’s gone under the bridge.
What led to the Botham-Chappell feud?
There are different versions of this depending on which Ian you are talking to. The few things that remain indisputable is the feud started in 1977 when Botham was touring Australia on a scholarship and it happened off the field of play.
Botham was confident 21-year-old who had played international cricket by then while Chappell had retired from international and first-class cricket and was turning out for North Melbourne in club cricket.
In what turned out to be a physical confrontation, Botham and Chappell went toe to toe with each in a bar close to the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne with varying accounts of who started the fight.
Probably, those were days of no security cameras in the vicinity which could have confirmed the veracity of the details they were to later deliver.
The pair was going to face off in a cricket match in Victoria but the bigger battle came in that bar where Chappell claims Botham “put a beer glass to my face” and threatened to cut him off.
He also alleged that Botham pushed him off his chair resulting in his fall to the bar floor.
Botham version of the events doesn’t include the beer glass incident but he does acknowledge to have knocked Chappell to the ground after he refused to stop talking adversely about the England cricket team.
The Englishman also alleged he had given Chappell three warnings before he went after the Aussie. Later he would go on to chase Chappell out of the bar. Chappell denies these claims, saying he left the bar on his own after this incident.
Chappell has claimed that after he was pushed off the table he was asked by Botham to settle it outside to which he is said to have retorted:
“I don’t fight. You either finish up in jail or hospital and I don’t intend visiting either over a **** like you.”
The 1979-80 clash
Facing off in a Sheffield Shield game, Botham had sent Chappell packing for a duck which was followed by an expected send-off. This was followed by the two meeting again at the international level with Chappell coming out of retirement there.
Featuring in a comeback match during the World Series Cricket, they faced off in two matches with Chappell scoring 60 in the first and eight in the second.
Botham, who had failed to get rid of him in either, would bag two wickets in the first and while he wouldn’t score too many with the bat, saw England win both matches. He would also scalp 12 wickets in the entire series, the most by an English bowler.
In that game in Sydney where Chappell made 60, Botham is said to have bowled a bouncer at him. Chappell responded with throwing the gauntlet at Botham, asking him to hit him the next time he bowled one because otherwise “I’m going to come down there and whack you with bat”.
Australia would end up with just three wins from eight matches in that tri-series competition and fail to qualify for the finals.
Later years between Botham and Chappell
According to Chappell, the pair was involved in television show in the 1990s where the host asked both if they would be interested in buying the hatchet by having a drink.
While Botham is said to have been fine with the idea, Chappell responded: “No. I can find plenty of decent people to have a drink with … I won’t be drinking with him.”
The feud continued over the years with the two involved in commentary in 1998 and then again having met during the 2010-11 Ashes series while working for different channels.
In 1998, they were paired together to commentate during the Ashes (check the Channel Nine sub-section below) while in 2010-11 they got involved in a verbal argument which, according to fellow commentator David Lloyd, took Botham two days to calm down.
According to Lloyd, it had taken a floor manager to stop them from getting involved in fisticuffs that day.
Channel Nine’s role in the Chappell-Botham relationship
Both former cricketers, Chappell and Botham, would go on to become commentators after their retirement from the game.
And given that their two teams, Australia and England often face off in the Ashes, it became inevitable they would end up commentating on the same tour.
In 1998-99, the two were paired together multiple times for commentary when England toured Australia for the Ashes. They did not exchange a word in response with Ian Chappell even refusing to introduce Botham during their stint together!
Australia would go on to win that series 3-1 incidentally.
Channel Nine would later bring the two of them together at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne for an aptly-named documentary called the ‘The Longest Feud’ which only led to aggravation of the issues between the two former cricketers.
Interestingly, the venue wasn’t too far away from where the original incident between Botham and Chappell had first transpired.
What happened in the The Longest Feud documentary?
The Longest Feud was a documentary produced in 2023 by Channel Nine, bringing both Chappell and Botham together. Botham began by saying “things don’t change” and they hadn’t with both ex-players going hammer and tongs at each other.
Botham accused Chappell of stitching a lot of lies to which the Aussie responded in kind by calling his adversary a liar.
“What glass did I threaten you with”, Botham asked, calling it a complete ‘bulls***’.
He also reminded Chappell of being pulled out of a spat by his brother in a game in Sydney, to which he said, “so, it was fine for you to swear at me at Adelaide but not fine for me to swear at you in Sydney?”
Botham also reckoned Chappell’s problem is he couldn’t take what he dished out.
They were asked why they couldn’t sort things out in so many years by someone from behind the camera but that only brought out more rancour with Botham claiming he wanted to sort things out at the end of the North Melbourne game in 1977 but Chappell asked him to “buzz off”.
The Englishman would go on to say, “I should have finished you off when I had the chance” in the “Adelaide car park”.
A few more tos and fros followed. Chappell claimed Botham was a 21-year-old who couldn’t hold his booze, but the Englishman alleged that he was goaded by Chappell.
Asked by the producer if there was anything good they could say about each other, Botham was gracious enough to concede that Chappell was a good cricketer and would have been a good captain, but there was no such response from the Australian.
Chappell: “Well, apart from being the worst long-time commentator of all and a coward – these are all the good things I can say.”
Botham summarised Chappell as being “sad and lonely” following which both said there wasn’t anything to apologise for what happened all those years ago.
What Chappell has had to say about Botham
Chappell has never held back regarding his views about everything Botham – most notably, the individual and the commentator.
Here’re some of his views about his adversary.
“Someone is going to regret awarding him a knighthood. As a human being he’s a nonentity.”
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day. [I] can’t stand his voice.”
“There are many skeletons dangling in Botham’s cupboard, ranging from stories of drug-taking to general thuggery, and if he keeps peddling his lies, there’s every chance more of these stories will emerge. Someone is going to regret awarding him a knighthood.”
“Apart from having us in the same bar, the rest is a fairytale.”
Photo Credit: Chappell: Australian News and Information Bureau – National Archives of Australia. Botham: Nic Redhead – Flickr: Sky Team