Cricket legend Sir Ian Botham reveals Aussie great Merv Hughes saved him when he took a horror fall into crocodile and shark-infested waters

Cricket legend Sir Ian Botham has revealed he was rescued by fellow great Merv Hughes when he took a painful fall into crocodile-infested waters in Australia’s wild tropical north last week.

‘Beefy’ Botham, 68, was on a four-day fishing trip with his former Ashes opponent when disaster almost struck when he tripped and fell, leaving him with serious bruising – and putting him at risk of attack by a saltwater crocodile. .

“In the end, Crocodile Beefy survived,” said the former all-rounder, mixing his nickname with a reference to the hit Australian film Crocodile Dundee.

‘I was out of the water faster than I got in.

‘Quite a few sets [crocodile] eyes peeked at me. Luckily I didn’t have time to think about what was in the water.’

The accident occurred while Botham and Hughes were fishing for barramundi on the Moyle River, about 200km south of Darwin.

Botham was traveling from a smaller boat to another, larger vessel when his shoes became tangled in a rope and he crashed into the boat before falling headfirst into the water.

There was also a family of bull sharks under the boat, hoping for scraps from the fishermen. News Corp reported.

‘Beefy’ was pulled from the water as ‘quite a few’ of the deadly reptiles watched – leaving him with serious bruising (pictured)

Australian cricket great Merv Hughes (pictured) acted quickly and dragged Botham back into the boat, which had also attracted some sharks looking for leftovers

“The boys were brilliant, it was just one of those accidents,” Botham said.

‘It all happened very quickly and I’m doing well now.’

Hughes, 62, has made a career out of his love of fishing since his playing career ended in 1994.

He stars in the hit TV show Merv Hughes Fishing, in which he travels to remote locations such as the area where he and Botham were casting their lines when disaster almost struck.

Botham’s love of fishing started when he was a child and he once said: ‘Fishing is my greatest passion, more than shooting or golf.

“There’s something about rivers, the flow of water, watching the day go by… I’ve never found a stretch of river that doesn’t interest me in some way.”

Australia is home to around 200,000 saltwater crocodiles and they are common in some areas of the Northern Territory, such as the Moyle River, where there are around five reptiles per square kilometre.

Botham branded himself as one of the greatest cricketers of all time when he scored 5,200 runs and took 383 wickets in a glittering Test career

Hughes became a cult hero before retiring from international cricket in 1994 and making a career on Australian television with his own fishing show.

Australia’s tropical north is home to thousands of saltwater crocodiles (pictured), which can grow up to six meters long and weigh 1,000 kg

The enormous crocodilians are exceptionally dangerous, but there are only one to two fatal attacks on humans per year in Australia.

According to crocattack.org, they have killed 30 Australians in the last 25 years. database of attacks.

Saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years, weigh up to 1000 kg and grow up to six meters in length.

Bull sharks are an aggressive species known for their ability to survive after swimming upstream from the ocean.

Last February, a bull shark was blamed for a fatal attack on a 16-year-old girl in Perth’s Swan River.

Although Botham and Hughes are friends, the Englishman still has a burning rivalry with another Australian cricket great, Ian Chappell.

Last year the two clashed again in the TV sports documentary The Longest Feud.

Chappell has long maintained that Botham once threatened him with a beer glass at Melbourne’s Hilton Hotel in 1977 after throwing him over a table – an accusation ‘Beefy’ says is ‘bulls***’.

When Chappell branded Botham ‘a bully and a coward’ on camera, the animosity ratcheted up a notch in the astonishing altercation that saw the former Aussie Test skipper brand his rival a ‘coward’ before ‘Beefy’ hit back by calling him out ‘sad and lonely’.