Lord Ian Beefy Botham You Ride The Torpedo Until The End Of The Tube

G'day, it's Gus Walland here, host of Not An Overnight Success, a podcast series brought to you by our mates at Shore & Partners Financial Services.

Today's episode is with Lord Ian Botham, Sir Ian Botham, Beefy has been a great mate for a long time now and obviously one of the greatest all-rounders that the cricketing world has ever seen.

So great talking to Beefy about all things about the choices that he had to be a soccer player or football player or playing cricket.

Of course his career was amazing but what he did after that, you know, nearly a hundred million Australian dollars towards charities and so forth.

So to talk to him about that was great. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I had the chance to talk to the big fella. Here it is, Sir Ian Botham or Beefy.

Sir Ian Botham, it is such a pleasure as a friend to have you on the podcast at last and welcome back to Australia mate.

I'm pleased to be down here.

It's beautiful and you're in Melbourne and I always tease you and say that Sydney's better than Melbourne but Melbourne has a particular place in your heart, hasn't it?

Well, my first ever port of call here was in 1976 and it was to Melbourne and I wasn't sure about Melbourne then but then I suddenly worked out, hey this is quite easy to get around.

East, West, North, South. It suddenly cheered me up and then I discovered the city of sport down Batman Avenue.

And to be honest with you, over the years it's just grown on me more and more. The heart of all sport, the best golf courses.

It's fantastic all the way down through the peninsula. Great wine, great food, great people.

Why do you think you love Australia so much? Do you think a part of it is because we actually think the way you are as a person, the way you played the game is more Australian than English though we had this attraction to you straight away?

Yeah, I think so and I think also the first time I walked out of the MCG when I'd worked out Australia to a degree and I walked out and I played up to the crowd carrying the chain and ball and everything.

When you do that you give it this one every so often. There was hundreds of thousands screaming Aussies wanting to rip the dark and hill concrete at me and I thought I've cracked it now.

Well we'll talk more about your love for Australia as the podcast goes on but we want to hear Bifi more about sort of you as a young man. Where were you born? What was your family like?

Well it comes as a shock to you. I sort of remember what happened yesterday. What happened 67 years ago or coming up to 68 years ago is my father was in the Navy and my mother was a dental nurse.

My father was moving all the time. He just got out of Singapore during the Second World War. Very much a naval man straight back up there. Quite a disciplinarian in his own way but an excellent sportsman.

So when we were about to be born we were taken over to Cheshire and you go to Cheshire in a place called Heswall and there's a guest house there or maternity guest house where they had the Navy used.

I was born there. Hence on my passport it says Heswall Cheshire although I've never lived there any time I can remember. But I think I was there three weeks before I got shipped back to Northern Ireland where my father was serving.

Then when he came out of the services he went to Westland Helicopters which is in Yol in Somerset and it's a bit of a clever old bugger because things went wrong with helicopters. It was his job to sort of find out why.

So yeah I was around helicopters from the earliest age I can remember. I used to sit on them while they were doing stuff. And then really sported on it from there.

The first time I had a golf club I think it was about the longest memory would probably be that. My dad club down for me I think was about four years old but I can remember that because he said no you'll get a bit closer to the green so you can hit it on.

And I said no. And I always remember this. And I smacked it and it went over the green. So the old man oh right okay. So now we had a lot of fun playing sport together. He went on to captain Westland Helicopters the cricket team.

He was the second team captain. I used to go along with my little bag and it didn't matter which side was short. I would join in. I'd go and play on the field or whatever.

I was brought up in a sport now so both parents were very sporty and it rubbed off. Amazingly none of the other members in the family really got very much sporting background at all.

So maybe the mum and dad just fed it all to me. Anyway I appreciated that.

Yeah it worked out okay for you. Brothers and sisters and other people that were in family or friends when you were growing up that you can remember that were important to you?

Not really no because I was away so much. I was off playing from a young age with my dad off playing cricket or football. It didn't really matter what sport. I would go along with my dad and we had a great time.

We had a great time and to be honest with you Gus those are the days I remember clearest were from about 13 onwards when I got picked for Somerset under 15s. Got 80 odd in debut and didn't really bowl much in those days because the selectors were a bit narrowed.

So you were either a batsman or a bowler or a wicket keeper. You're not allowed to be an all-rounder. And then at 15 I had to make a choice between soccer as you call it over here, football as we call it in the UK.

I was a First Division side Crystal Palace that came and approached and saw my father and mother and anyway at the end of that conversation long story short I sat down with my father Les and I said what do you reckon? He said before we go any further he says you're a much better cricketer than you are football.

And I actually for once in my life listened to him which was good. I enjoyed playing football. It was good fun. I played at Scunthorpe and Yellow Town. Captain England amateurs so there's a bit of trivia for you.

We lost 1-0 so it wasn't too much to shout about but yeah sport was always part of my life the main part of my life. Academic I didn't really bother that because I worked out very quickly.

There better be sports for them to actually go and work. So yeah school was a bit of a hindrance actually apart from the fact that I could go and play sports so I represented the school but I didn't really fancy doing much after that so I moved on.

Were you a good kid at school even though you didn't particularly like the classroom? Were you that likable rogue or were you that like I can't wait for both of them to nick off?

No no I think they quite enjoyed it because I was the outstanding sportsman in the school so that gave me a bit of leeway. So yeah that was all very good fun when you actually look back at it all.

I was scoring runs when I was about 8 years old. Sport has really been the whole of my life to be honest. One way or another playing, commentating, having to work with you Gus.

We love it. We love it when you're down here with us on air as well as how you look after us off air as well.

Our morning walks.

I love our morning walks. The thing I love about our morning walks and for people listening to the podcast for the first time, Sarayan is a part of the Triple M comedy team and we meet every morning at the hotel and we go for a walk and we find a coffee and we just chat and stuff.

I love that because I get you to myself a little bit and I can just pester you with questions and stuff. In the evening I need to share you over a bottle of wine with everyone else but what we love about you at Triple M is the fact that you are knighted.

You are a sir. You're more than that now aren't you? Have you gone past sir to something else?

Yeah lord.

Your lord right?

I get enough stick as it is. You guys are waving, everyone is sort of lordy lordy.

So I don't go, I'm not really that bothered about titles but it's nice. It's a very nice situation position and to also work for the government as a trade envoy over here, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I didn't know quite what to expect.

It suddenly worked out very quickly. It's knocking on that door and knocking on that door and bringing UK and Australian businesses together. Introduce and let them get on with it. A lot of good things are happening at the moment which are exciting for Australia and the UK.

So as a youngster you know you're talented, you get the choice, you decide on cricket and you take your dad's advice. You said your scoring runs at the age of eight. At what stage did they allow you to be the all-rounder that you came? At what stage did they go, oh this play can actually do it all?

Junior school they started to realise that and then up to secondary modern school. By that time though I was losing or missing quite a bit of school because of playing cricket so I was quite happy about that. And then things are really different to what they are now and then I left school just before my sixteenth birthday.

So mutual agreement it was between the school and myself. I was away so much then. I'd registered for Somerset so I got sent to the Lord's ground staff because in those days Somerset didn't have the finance to take me on. So they sent me up to Lord's. I did a year and a half there and then I was going back and that's half a year before I actually left.

I was playing virtually every weekend or at midweek I was down at Somerset or wherever with the second team. So that was it. So at the age of eighteen I was with the Somerset staff. I made my debut in seventy-six for England in a one day and then tests started in seventy-seven.

So it happened relatively quickly. Did you have any moment when you decided to leave school and go professional cricket? Any fear of doing that? Was there a risk in your mind or was it just so exciting?

I couldn't get out there quick enough. Today I'd have the Maserati sat out there. Let's go. But no I got to where I wanted and I think when you set your stall out and I feel for a lot of young sportsmen who get signed up by football clubs or soccer clubs in the UK and they're eight, nine years old and then at sixteen they turn around and say which has been their whole life.

And then sixteen, seventeen they say sorry you're not good enough. So I feel for those guys because they've given just as much as I did if not more. A lot of them end up playing but in the lower divisions but that's not what you've got your mind and you've set your stall out and you want to play for whether it's Chelsea, Man United, whoever and then suddenly the curtain's drawn. So I feel for those guys.

Did it come naturally to you Bifi, the skills or are you one of those people that you were naturally skillful but you had to work very hard at it to get to the level you got to? What was your work ethic like in terms of that?

Well we just played every day. When I was on the Lord's Ground stuff we were playing and weekends we were playing matches for the team. The MCC Young Pros was one team and then there was also I think called the Lord's Knickers. So we played, I don't know if those two things still continue but we were playing in the nets. We had to bowl to the Middlesex players, the England players, anyone that came over for a net. So yeah we just played and played.

So you just got more and more confident and a good coach is one particular Harry Sharp, ex-Middlesex player and actually scored for Middlesex in his later years but he was a great source of encouragement. Then I had of course people down in Somerset who looked after me and encouraged and also I had probably the best captain you could ever want as a youngster and that was Brian Close.

Brian Close who's just kept, well Viv and I made our first class debut in 1974 together playing against Lancashire and Close he was captain. We had a lot of success early on but he kept our feet firmly on the ground and made sure that we didn't get carried away with our own importance which can easily happen.

You see it all around the world, get themselves into trouble etc etc or just fade away or you know lose the dedication. So we had a taskmaster and a very good one.

Viv Richards you spoke about they're obviously one of the greatest of all time and your friendship is still to this day a very strong one. What was it like when you first met Viv and just having Viv in your life on and off the field, what's that been like for you?

Well the first time we met was Somerset played an under 25 game and Viv had been smashing, I've heard about this lad from the Antigua smashing it all around the North Somerset leagues. I was going well in the south of Somerset and then we got thrown together.

I played for the seconds before that and what have you but playing in the under 25 game, walked in the dressing room, I got there early, was quite excited about meeting and seeing this guy and he was already there which I can tell you now the two of us were never the first in the dressing room from that point on.

We used to rock up as late as we could but we were there and he was sat in the corner and I went over for the kick next to him. I said you must be Viv, he said yeah you must be Ian, I said yeah.

Anyway by the end of the game it was Beefy and Smokey so that was got rid of all that stuff. But he'd broken every record and we won the toss and he went out the bat and he was bowled first ball.

So that's Todd's law and I went out and I got runs and then we bowled, I bowled five others I think it was for 48.

Anyway and Viv came on and bowled what he calls off spin, I called it filth but he actually came on and got six for 34 I think.

So at the end of the game he came up to me and said Beefy man, he said you get the runs, I get the wickets.

It didn't quite work out that way but yeah that was the start of our friendship. I went over for his 70th birthday, he's God's father and my son. We'd be closer until we both part.

It's blood is thicker than water and there's a lot of blood between those two.

I love that. Just knowing the two characters, imagine how much fun you had through that time and the success you had at Somerset which was a county that hadn't had a lot of success before, you guys gave that to them.

The fun of going from one game to another, people don't realise how many games you played when you were playing county cricket and getting on the motorway from fixing one match and starting the next match the next day sort of stuff.

Well you start, the championship game would start on a Saturday and then the Sunday would be a Sunday league game. Now we could be playing at Taunton and the Sunday league game could be at Scarborough which in those days was a five hour drive.

So we'd have to finish the game on a Saturday night, we'd all race up there and have a couple of beers before the two o'clock start up.

So you'd get up there with a couple of beers, try and get something to eat which wasn't easy at that time of night and not particularly healthy but when you're hungry you're hungry at that age.

And then you turn around at the end of the game and drive back to play days two and three. Then on a Wednesday they used to have the one day competitions.

So the Benson Hedges as it was, the Nat West as it was, the John Player League as it was, all these games there is one day formats fitted in and we didn't really get any time off at all.

But I like that and I think that was good because you develop your skills a lot better out there in the middle and also you build your stamina.

So from a point of view people go oh you bowled a lot of O's as well. I did that all the time.

So the body was, that's one of the things I don't think a lot of cricketers nowadays bowling nothing in the middle is to have too much net practice and I hated it.

I was physically scared in the nets because I couldn't concentrate because there's someone out back in there smacking it into the net, someone this side.

Bowlers all bowled from about 18 yards they all want the pinion. I mean I just didn't see the point of it to be honest.

So I didn't do very much at all in that department but I would do the fielding, catching, slip fielding and all that sort of stuff and bowl and I bowled out in the middle with a keeper and just one stump one stump and run in a bowl there.

That was for me that was much more important than standing in a net and getting barraged by bowlers who are normally very quick but from 18, 16 yards they're a bit quicker.

Of course the other part of being an all-rounder is the fact of the catching and the fielding.

We had Steve Smith on the podcast not long ago and he goes mate that's why I put so much time and effort into it, it's half the game.

And he said I don't think we do enough of that or people don't do enough of that so that was a big part because you're an excellent catcher and an excellent fielder as well, weren't you?

And that was you putting the time and effort in as well as the natural ability in the eye?

Yeah but I think I enjoyed it when I was with England when Kenny Barrington was with us.

You know we used to go out and always finish, we'd start the session with the catching and we'd finish the session and the session so we got a lot of it but we made it a contest.

So we were all there and Kenny's job was to try and get it through us or make us drop it but it hadn't your hands up so to me it was just functional and it was a way of doing it and enjoying it.

Next it I didn't enjoy but going out in the middle and batting I wouldn't mind that with one bowler or two bowlers and that no one else and a couple of the old coaches would be out on the boundary just to roll it back to the bowlers.

So that to me was much more beneficial.

You're playing for Somerset, you get to play for England one day as then, test cricket, what was it like Biffy that and how did you find out the first time you were going to play for England?

Is it a telegram back in the day, is it a phone call, does someone come and knock on the door at Somerset when you've played a game and tell you what was that moment like for you?

Well what happened is, and it hasn't changed that long ago, until when we were going to say to a Sunday league game after the game, 5-12 you found somewhere to pull in, turn the radio on and it was announced at midday.

This is the team to play Australia ahead of me in the third test.

Oh so you heard it the same as everyone else?

Yeah, so Joe Bloggs on my high street knew it exactly the same time as I.

Oh, you're playing by the way, I said thanks I've just heard it, yeah good, how are you mate, thank you, yeah.

And that was the way it was done. So there was a lot of pile ups with guys swinging in to fold.

And then as the radios improved in cars, in fact the cars didn't have them very often, you'd have to put the portable radio there, transistor.

And so you'd have to pull out to get tuned in or get it working, but as cars became more sophisticated, but you still found out that way.

Wow, were you expecting to get picked when you did, was it a shock, was it something that you were looking forward to, what was that moment like for you?

Well I actually thought I should have played the series before, I thought I should have played, I was playing a lot better than the guys who are currently in those positions, all around the positions.

But with hindsight, which is a wonderful thing, they did play against the West Indies that summer and it was very, very hot in the UK.

And suited the Caribbean boys a lot more than the lads from Yorkshire or Durham or wherever.

I think about it now, Michael Holding, all these guys, Andy Roberts, all of them steaming in, baptism of fire.

So I actually thought, well when I sat back at the end of it, when I got from behind the settee and looked over to see what was going on in the game, hiding.

So it was, yeah, I have to say it was maybe a blessing in disguise. I had plenty of the West Indies from that point on.

But maybe not, but I broke it myself in test create with the Australians.

And so you've got the three lions, that moment is happening. What was it like, your incredible career, obviously captaincy, not captaincy, the all rounder, all the stuff that went with it.

How can you sort of sum up your time as an England cricketer?

Well, I would say I was fiercely competitive. Whoever we played against, wherever we played, I enjoyed playing all around the world.

Fascinated me India from the very first time I went there.

And I enjoyed going into near Nagpur, which if you look at the map of India, it's right there, slap bang in the middle.

And I used to go and look for the Tigers in the reserves and go and get some photographs.

The Red Fort in Delhi, amazing place. Those guys nowadays don't do that.

They sit in their rooms and play whatever game, so you're playing against someone across the corridor.

It's a bit bizarre, isn't it? For me, half the interest was to explore these places.

Obviously you were restricted in some areas, but that was part and parcel in those days, as you would be now.

I enjoyed seeing the world that way. It was a great way.

But you know, at the end of the day, I think the thing is that when they put me in the ground, they put that gravestone up.

I want words, which I think I've told you this anyway, but I have a saying throughout my career.

The saying was you ride the torpedo to the end of the tube.

And for me, everything that's happened, there's no point in looking back.

You got to keep going forward and you learn, you live from your mistakes and you move on.

To me, that was the way I played the game. There's no point in worrying about what happened.

There's no point in gloating. That was always my motto.

It's quite extraordinary, your career, when you think of you as a player, but the man you've become since your playing days,

not so much in the commentary box, but what you've done outside in terms of charity and so forth.

You just can't get too far into this podcast without going there.

What is the number now that you've actually raised?

It's got to be around 65, 75 million somewhere in that bracket.

It's always ongoing because we keep on doing golf days now.

I had a chat with my surgeon after he put the fourth major operation in four years.

He rebuilt my spine, then he did the right hip, left hip, and I've got a brand new knee now.

When I go through an airport, mate, the whole place knows I'm there. It's like a Christmas show.

Thank God they brought these new machines in. Now we go and stand like this and you don't have to do all that.

Yeah, look at the end of the day, you wouldn't change it.

The biggest part of the whole thing is that in the 19 walks that we did over a fair old span,

and if you look at the mileage and training mileage, some probably equates to about London to Sydney direct.

So we did it. The last type of walk I did was in Australia.

We did that around the cities for children with type 1 diabetes.

When you see four kids who look perfectly normal die in eight weeks, and then you want to get involved.

I had no idea what leukemia was, so that's how it all started. I wanted to do something.

I told you the whole story would be here for two hours, but at the end of the day, it's the best thing I ever did.

It's a family affair. Kath, after the first couple of walks, she took over the organization of it,

which is a much harder job than walking, because you have to get councils, police.

It takes about 12 to 18 months to organize each walk, particularly the ones when we did follow Hannibal over the Alps with the elephants.

That took a hell of a lot of organizing.

We did 19 different parts of the world, John and Groves, Land's End, a couple of times.

It was probably the hardest one we did, because they factored in the 35 degrees every day,

but I forgot to factor the road heat. That was about 50 degrees.

You get it coming up, it's getting bounced off here, and you've got your protection here, but you have no protection there.

It was hard work. In fact, my manager, Rodney, as you know very well,

he and his mate came along to come for the walk.

They hired for the most of the walk this air-conditioned tut-tut, and they would go past me with a cold beer.

How's it going, Veevy? Yeah, I'll tell you what I said.

But no, that was seriously hot. But I love that country. It's a fantastic country.

I'm only too pleased to go down and help.

I actually, for Lorius, went down there a few weeks after the tsunami to see what we could do to help.

That was pretty horrendous. I always had a great affiliation with that country.

Veevy, have you always had that big heart, or did that come after your career,

that you could use your profile to be able to do such good?

Yeah, you need a springboard. The springboard for me was cricket.

That made it a lot easier for me to get the attention we needed.

Having said that, you rely on the people.

We started doing those walks in the mid-80s. You couldn't pay online.

You couldn't have PayPal and all this, or iPledge.

None of that, because the buckets were collecting money physically.

We collected over a million pounds just in the buckets.

Then the conglomerates, back in the mid-80s, the conglomerates made us charities of the year and all this kind of thing.

So suddenly the money kept rolling in. That's why we kept doing it.

That's the fact that children, when they first started, had a 20% chance of survival.

Just before COVID, they assessed it now, and we got news that it's now up to 94%.

That in itself has been magnificent.

What we've also achieved, the research centres, which we've built, are still bigger and better.

But there's other forms of cancer that they've been able to help as well with their research.

It's a great feeling. I'm very proud of it. The family are very proud of it, because Sarah took over after Kath to run it.

I think we're all satisfied.

When your head hits the pillow every night, it must be magnificent to think about that.

That's a really nice segue to your family, because you've mentioned the family all the way through.

For you, in terms of your family now as a grandfather and so forth, that whole journey, for you, what's that been like?

Is that your greatest accomplishment?

Yeah, without doubt. Sport is sport. That's my job.

I don't count that. I like the fact that we've given back something.

My doctor did say, if you ever do another walk, I am not going to repair you.

Golf days, wine dinners, things like that. No more walking.

You're definitely very good at the golf and the wine day, so it's best now for you just to concentrate on that.

What about being a dad and being a granddad?

My dad has always said to me, he thinks he's going to be a better granddad than he was a dad, because he was so busy.

He was always away. He was having a crack to try to set the world up.

But he's got time now, so he can be granddad. What are your thoughts around that?

He's absolutely right, the old man, because I was away forever.

The kids, I saw them, we were in the financial position where we could bring them over in those days, because you didn't get paid a great deal in the early days.

Obviously, later on we did. But the kids actually have made me a bib, because they say you're always spilling, especially spag bol.

So they got that, and it's got greatest granddad ever.

My own coffee cup, greatest granddad ever. So they let me know that I've achieved something now.

What Kath is trying to know is when she becomes a great-grandmother.

Is that maybe around the corner? What's the story?

I don't think it's too far away. Jimbo's getting married, James is getting married, Marnie's living in Melbourne now.

Regan, his eldest, is probably coming back to Australia to work in the wine industry.

Quite fond of this part of the world.

Both ways, and it's nice, I suppose, for you to have that, because I know last year the Boxing Day test,

I think you had a granddaughter that was about to start working in a bar and so forth, and you're looking forward to seeing her in the evening.

That must be just awesome to have that type of relationship where you can be the other side of the world,

and you're with someone that you love nearly more than anyone else.

Well, she actually, in fairness, she actually went there to make money, to earn some money initially, but then she now works for Myers.

Nice.

And she has been for about six months, and she enjoys it.

They're doing a lot of film shoots and stuff like that, whether it's sports equipment or anything that Myers sells.

Yeah, that's nice. That's lovely to have her with you.

What about the other part of cricket, obviously, is jumping into the commentary box. You did that for a long time.

23 years.

23 years. So, Beefy, was it hard for you to not sit on the fence, at least initially,

of talking about players that you might have played with, or were you pretty much straight into it, unpaid, to give her an opinion?

No, I think everybody, when they first go into it, you tend to be on the player's side,

but then it doesn't take long before you realise, hang on a minute, that was the awful shot you played, mate.

I'm sorry, but yeah, it was. What kind of bowling is that?

As you know, and that's the way it is now. The punters want to hear the truth, not just sticking up for them.

So I got that out of my system pretty quickly.

No, I try and be constructive, and also a bit of fun.

I've worked with some great guys at Sky, and I enjoy myself now in Triple M.

The best thing about working for Triple M, cricket, is you go along, as we're dressed now,

t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops, same accreditation, so I can go anywhere I want still, and we enjoy it, we have fun.

Yeah, and I think that comes across the airwaves too.

Well, it should do, but no, it's great fun, it is great fun.

Absolutely. So for you, over all those years and stuff, was that just a natural progression for you to do that, just to keep within the game?

Because you were doing so much other stuff as well, like at what stage did you sort of go,

you can't fit all this in, or you just managed to do it?

No, look, Sky was brilliant. I had 23 great years, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I worked, as I said, with some great people. Bob Willis is no longer with us, Warney, you know, all these guys.

And no, it's good fun, it was great.

And also, when I remember when I first signed, I said to Vic Wakeling, we ran it then in those days,

and they groomed me from the year before to say, look, you know, they sort of get me to do an odd day here and an odd day there just to get the feel of it.

But I sat down with Vic when we signed the contract, and he just said, I asked him one question, I said, where do you want to take the game to?

He said, well, from a commentator's point of view, I want the people at home, I'm sitting on their settee watching the cricket, I feel they're there with you.

They're in the commentary box, they're on the field, and I think it happened pretty much.

I think they achieved that as we went along, but it was natural.

I had great people around me with experience, so David Lloyd, Paul Allott, David Gower joined eventually.

No, I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have to be honest, you know, we had a great time.

The awards, the stuff that comes after, you get a gong before the knighthood, right?

You get like an OBE or something, which is lovely.

And is that something you go down and have a posh sort of occasion, or is that just sort of sent to you in the post and good on your brother?

No, no, no, you go down, you're awarded it, the same as, and the knighthood.

The Lord or Baron, whichever is the same thing.

What I had to do there was go to the House of Lords and take an oath.

So that came after the knighthood though.

So OBE, Beefy, what's it like when you get the, do you get a phone call?

Do you get a letter saying, come down and we're about to knight you?

Like, what's that like?

It must be the most amazing, happy feeling.

Well, the knighthood, I got a letter through the letterbox, and it had the seal.

So I thought, this is either very good news or very bad news.

So anyway, I opened it up and you read the letter and it's an invitation.

And they say, very simply, we'd like to appoint you as a knight of the realm.

And then you have a tick yes or tick no.

Well, that was a no brainer for a start.

So yeah, we'll go straight to yes.

We'll say out the rest.

And then the hardest part about it was you're then told you can't sell anybody until it's announced in the,

whether it's the Queen, as it was in the Queen's birthday list, she was the reigning monarch.

And now, of course, you'd be the king, Charles.

So I couldn't tell my mother because I told my mother the whole world wasn't over in three minutes.

Jesus, there'd have been smoke signals going up, there'd have been telegrams.

So that was a no go.

I obviously told Kath and I told my two oldest children because I knew that those three would keep it under the hat.

How long did they have to keep the secret for?

About eight weeks.

Long time.

Sure is.

And the speculation grows in the newspapers.

Right.

And I'm sitting there going, man, nothing about it.

I don't know what you're on about.

And yeah, and I'm thinking, yeah, I'm not telling you.

Loose-lipped ships though, don't they?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

The big day came and took my two grandsons, eldest grandsons at that time, which were Regan and James.

And it was just a great day.

You arrive, you're driven into the inner sanctum in the square in the middle, which not many people see.

And you go in there and you're taken up to the green room initially for my family.

I got diverted to the blue room, or I think it was blue room, anyway, another room.

And I was then told the protocol on how to receive the knighthood.

And so I went through that and I was second up.

So the then Queen's private secretary was retiring.

So he went first.

He said, just follow me, watch me.

I think Brackala Price runs.

And I got it pretty much right.

And you get called to the Queen.

And she then anoints you very quickly, says, arise, Sir Ian, and then engage in conversation.

And she actually, I'll never forget what she said to me.

She said, William, congratulations, Sir Ian.

She said, you know, I'm not very fond of cricket.

And I knew she didn't because I had met her on a few occasions.

But she said, can you tell me about the charity work?

So I told her a quick boom boom.

It was about three minutes, which seemed a long time.

Yeah.

And then then then you the Queen shakes your hand and then you walk out.

So a celebration after that.

Everyone waiting for you to have a drink and something to eat.

Well, yeah, we were Lord's MCC.

Well, I sat out with all those years before, but we kissed and made up since.

But they laid on reception.

I didn't know any of this.

Oh, right.

The section was laid on.

There was about 300 people there.

Right.

All different walks of sport, all my mates, all my friends and families.

And half the village where we lived came down and it was a great day for them.

And they laid it all on.

And then scoreboard had congratulations to Ian on the big scoreboard there.

And they were taken around the dressing rooms.

Those that wanted to go and see it needs to say, I skipped that part.

But they laid it all on.

And then that evening we came back about 30 of us.

And then in the library, they did a special dinner for the close family.

And so, yeah, it was a big day out.

Big, big day.

That sounds an absolute ripper day.

Have you become better with authority as you've aged over the years?

Yeah, I'm actually sometimes the author.

I'm the man dishing out the orders now sometimes.

So I know not many people take much notice anyway.

But no, I think you understand perhaps the values of life a bit more as you get older.

And how much more you can enjoy it.

And I don't see any point in being a miserable so-and-so.

So from my point of view, if you've got something to pass on, pass it on.

Do it with a smile.

And it's not hard to be nice to people just to say g'day or to kids sign an autograph.

But wait, they don't do that much now.

It's nearly always cameras, selfie.

Yeah, which is in some ways it's easier.

But everyone's got a phone.

That's the problem.

Yeah.

Everyone's a journo now as well.

That's the other thing.

Yeah, well, that's the flip side.

Look, Sarian, our time is nearly up.

So I just wanted to basically ask you the final five questions, which is our fast five.

And you've given one of them already, your favorite quote.

You've already mentioned it.

Could you tell us again, you know, the quote that you live by that people can see?

I wouldn't use that one.

I won't use that one.

OK.

I won't use that as my quote.

But the one that meant most to me was when I met Nelson Mandela in Monaco and Monte Carlo.

And it was the Lloris Sports for Goods Foundation inaugural meeting.

So you had 40 old fuddy-duddies and Mr. Mandela did the speech.

And at the end of it, he said, listen to the audience.

He said, remember one thing.

Sportsmen will break down more barriers than politicians will ever achieve.

So that stayed in my head.

And he was so right.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with a great man.

Just I have to ask you.

We know what happened in 95 and how that country was united through that.

What was it like to break some bread with a man like that?

Well, the thing that knocked me over most was that after 27 years of incarceration, he came out with an answer of animosity.

He wanted all he wanted to do was bring and the groundswell was so much for him to come back.

And he was probably the best politician or certainly one of the best politicians they've ever had because he united the country.

He must be worried.

If he was around now, he'd be very worried.

But he's in his time.

He was a remarkable man.

Yeah, no doubt.

Favorite holiday destination for you, Saran?

Queenstown, Aratown, fishing in New Zealand, fishing and wine tasting and eating good food and the walking and golf has everything.

Your perfect combination of all those things wrapped in all week.

And all wrapped within about 10 square miles.

Awesome.

Happy days.

Favorite book.

Are you much of a reader?

Well, I can't say men only.

My favorite book.

Actually, I have read some good books.

I've enjoyed it.

I read one of the books I enjoyed quite recently was Bob Willis's autobiography.

Bob and I are very, very close, as you know.

And to read that, that was quite he had such a forward thinking brain when it came to cricket.

You know, the stuff that we're playing nowadays, he was talking about 25 years ago.

Right. So I'd like that.

Or I would.

Yeah, it's something would be a sporting sporting book of one form or another.

Autobiographies and so forth.

Yeah.

Favorite movie.

Zulu.

Zulu.

Tell us why.

I've watched Zulu every Christmas day from about the age of whatever I was.

And it's a religion now.

So everyone just wears it on this channel at 11 o'clock.

And everyone has to sit through it with me.

And then last one.

Last one.

Very fortunate to have the support of Shoren Partners Financial Services.

Earl and our fantastic blokes.

When you meet them, you'll just love them.

They're just really genuine people who just want to make the world a better place.

And they realize that they're very lucky and very successful and they want to give back.

So we're the only podcast in the world, Beefy, that gives guests 10,000 Aussie dollars to give away to a charity of their choice.

So if you could tell us who you'd like to give the money to

and what you think that charity will do with that 10 grand?

Well, we've gone from leukemia research to a foundation.

And I think the foundation would love that.

We've got a couple of the charities to support.

We'd love that money.

That kind of money would make a big difference to them.

And one of them, one of the most horrendous of them all is a thing called Batten Disease.

There is no cure.

And effectively children don't make it to their teens.

And basically the body just suddenly starts shutting down eyesight, hearing, movement, speech.

And it's a very short term and there is no cure.

And we'd like to put that to Batten Disease when we get that goes well with you guys.

Of course, 100 percent is totally your choice.

And what we'll do is we'll get all those details and make sure they get that as soon as possible so they can start putting that money to good use.

Well, Rod is sitting there drinking coffee, doing nothing.

I'll get him to send it here.

Honestly, let's talk about Roger Manager just for a moment.

I've been talking about coattails.

That bloke has jumped onto yours at a very young age and has been holding on ever since.

I think we first started looking after him.

He was in the mid 90s.

Yeah, and he had dark hair.

He's now got gray hair.

He's now got a few wrinkles.

And I think it's proof of that down to me.

Well, I bet you he wouldn't swap.

He wouldn't swap one minute of his time working with you, rather.

Do you know, I've worked with a lot of people over many, many years, agents or looking after you.

And I can honestly say that I trust him all my life.

So there's not many out there that I could say that about.

It's a big pool with a lot of sharks, but he's got no teeth.

He's all right.

Good egg, as you are, mate.

Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast.

Happy days, mate.

Good on you, mate.

Well, there you go.

Sarian Botham or Lord Botham, Beefy Botham.

What an absolute champion.

His money's going to Beefy's Charity Foundation.

Of course, it'll go to where all the other money has gone over $100 million.

What a legend.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Coming up next week, we've got another cracking guest.

I hope you are there to enjoy it.

Until next time, see you later.