When Ian Botham played king at the panto and the 1992 Cricket World Cup

Botham came off the stage at Bournemouth’s Pavilion Theatre and inspired England to victory over Australia at the World Cup

By Steven Pye for the Guardian Sport Network

Things were rarely dull where Ian Botham was concerned. After all, anyone who is an inspiration to David Brent is going to be an entertainer. Botham wrote his own script for England one last time at the Cricket World Cup in 1992. Yet, as his teammates jetted off for a tour of New Zealand in January 1992, a very different set of scripts were causing a stir among the British press. Botham joined the tour late after being given permission to appear on A Question of Sport and a pantomime in Bournemouth, where he was playing the part of the king in Jack and the Beanstalk.

Most journalists were delighted by his absence; oh no they weren’t. Botham’s decision to put King before country did not go down well with the press. “I’ll settle for the grim conclusion that in terms of basic morality, of what is plainly right or wrong, English cricket has just displayed a chilling ignorance,” wrote James Lawton in the Express.

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