Long past his playing days, poor ‘footwork’ landed Ian Botham in trouble.
One of the finest all-rounders to have graced cricket, Botham recently escaped a big accident while on a fishing trip in Australia. And for that, he must thank one
of his old Ashes rivals — Merv Hughes.
Botham was on a fishing trip with the former Australian fast-bowler on the Moyle River in northern Australia. While moving from one boat to another, Botham’s flip-flops got caught in a rope. The 68-year-old, nicknamed “Beefy”, smashed into the boat before falling headfirst into the water, which was “infested” with sharks and crocodiles.
But before something worse happened, Hughes and the others present on the boat pulled him out of the water. The fall resulted in several bruises on the Englishman’s body, but that did not stop Botham, a feisty cricketer in his playing days, from completing his fishing adventure.
Botham took to Instagram to post pictures of his trip. The horrific experience did not hurt his wit as he wrote: “My catch of the day was the barra (fish) while I was nearly catch of the day for all the crocs and bull sharks... Thanks boys for getting me out.”
Recollecting the incident, Botham said: “I was out of the water quicker than I went in... Quite a few sets of eyes were having a peep at me. Luckily I had no time to think about what was in the water,” he told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper.
“The guys were brilliant, it was just one of those accidents. It was all very quick and I’m OK now.”
“At the end of the day, Crocodile Beefy survived,” Botham said, the new nickname being a reference to
the hit Australian film Crocodile Dundee.
Botham and Hughes were Ashes rivals during consecutive series in the late 1980s. Botham had famously smashed Hughes for 22 runs in an over on the way to a century in an England victory in the Brisbane Test in 1986-87. Two years later, Hughes bowled Botham in his comeback innings at Edgbaston.
The duo were on a four-day boat trip to catch barramundi fish. Both will be
busy doing commentary in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Hughes, 62, has made a career out of his love of fishing. He even has a popular TV show in his name — Merv Hughes Fishing.
Botham too is a fishing fan. “More than shooting or golf, fishing is my biggest
passion,” he had said once.
Australia is home to around 2,00,000 saltwater crocodiles and they are common in some areas of northern Australia. There are approximately five crocodiles per square kilometre in the Moyle River.
