Bickerings of the 70's has beens

Well, the title of this post has definitely been inspired by the show Hugh Grant was supposed to do in the movie,'Music and Lyrics'.However ,I am not talking about the music industry here.I am talking about the more complicated business, yes business, of cricket, that's what it is these days, ain't it? People are just looking for more ways to make millions.
I feel ashamed to be even talking about it. Two of the greatest players, the game has ever seen, are now quarreling like a pair of kindergarten brats! This is abominable! Even sillier is the reason for the quarrel- a small fight in a Melbourne bar, almost 30 years ago! Phew! 30 years!
Here's the story:
One March evening in 1977, shortly after Australia had won the Centenary Test at the nearby MCG, the 21-year-old Ian Botham, then on a winter scholarship at the University of Melbourne, apparently overheard Ian Chappell, 12 years his senior, taking the pee out of the Poms. Not being one to turn so much as half a cheek, the fiercely patriotic Botham may or may not have threatened Chappell with something glassy, then punched him to the floor.
According to one of Botham’s accounts, this sent Chappell “flying over a table into a group of Aussie Rules footballers, whose drinks were scattered to all parts (Needless to say, he replaced those drinks pretty quickly!)” After a parting shot from the former Australia captain, Botham tore after him into the car park and vaulted a bonnet or two, before belatedly realising there might be more productive ways of expending energy.
Chappell’s recollection, on the other hand, is that the “punch” was a “push” and that the brawl had started a few days earlier. By the time he arrived at the “MCG” (the bar), he related in Ashley Mallett’s 2005 biography of his erstwhile Test skipper, Hitting Out, 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. I can’t remember exactly what they were saying but [he] said something about an Australian player and I said: ‘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.’ And he responded, ‘That’s right.’ Whereupon things “degenerated” and Botham eventually threatened to “cut” Chappell “from ear to ear”. Botham vehemently denies he used a bottle to illustrate his point.
In Dudley Doust’s 1980 biography, Ian Botham – The Great All-Rounder, the Sunday Times sportswriter stated that his subject’s pursuit of Chappell ended when he “lost his prey in the traffic”. Come 1994’s blockbusting Botham – My Autobiography (Don’t Tell Kath), it was a passing police car that foreshortened the chase. Amazing how the memory improves with time...Insane ain't it?
For his part, Chappell insists he was not pursued into the car park but the main road, that the Victoria fast bowler Ian Callen grabbed Botham from behind and suggested the Somerset tyro calm down, and that he, Chappell, then withdrew. Whatever the truth, Chappell appears to have held the firmer grudge.
Now that's sad , because thirty years have passed since the whole brawl thing, and these don't even talk to each other well. Chappell publicly declared that knighting Botham was a mistake which the queen would regret. Is that the sort of example they should be setting? Is that what they teach the next generation of cricketers?
Here's an exerpt from a channel 9 interview, of the two Ians, the bad blood between them was obvious. This was a decade after the whole bar thingy!
Recalled Chappell: “At the end of it, I’ll never forget, Ray [Martin] said to Botham, ‘Oh well, you’ll still have a drink at the end of a day’s play.’
“And Botham said, ‘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?’
“I said, ‘No, Ray. I can find plenty of decent people to have a drink with. I won’t be drinking with him.”
Well, that's how bad the story is...Sad, isn'it?
Well, i guess that's it from me now..............