Ian Botham mistook coronavirus infection for bad case of influenza

Former England all-rounder Ian Botham mistook coronavirus infection for a bad case of influenza towards the end of 2019. The legendary all-rounder made this stunning revelation on the ‘Good Morning Britain’ news show.

“I think the thing to remember is that six months ago no-one even knew what this was, hadn’t heard of it. I’ve actually had it. I had it at the end of December, beginning of January, and I thought I had a bad case of flu,” Ian Botham told Good Morning Britain.

“It’s amazing how long it has been around, we don’t know all the details. It was very much a sort of in the dark, let’s see what happens. I think people have been responding extremely well. I hope they show a bit more patience over the next couple of weeks or so, so we can get to a situation where everybody can move around,” the legendary England cricketer added.

Ian Botham turned out in 102 Tests and 116 ODIs for England in an international career spanning 15 years. In Test matches, Ian Botham went on to score 5200 runs with the willow and picked 383 scalps as well.

International cricket is set to resume on July 8th when West Indies take on England at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton in the first of three Tests.

Ian Botham believes cricket should start soon

However, club cricket remains on hold due to concern of the virus spreading. For his part, Ian Botham, who is also the chairman of Durham Cricket, believes the sport should restart soon.

“I think cricket will be back very shortly. I believe there is a couple of meetings coming up where the decisions will be made. From my point of view, speaking to the boys at Durham, they are back in training, they are very, very keen to get out there and play, as any young sportsman,” the 64-year-old former all-rounder said.

Ian Botham, who was the fastest to 1000 runs and 100 wickets, feels both first-class and limited-overs cricket should resume in England soon.

“There is talk about whether it is white ball or red ball cricket – it should be both, all aspects of the game should come back. There’s a lot of guys out there, we have guys at Durham, who are in the last year of their contract, young players, and if they don’t get a chance to show what they’ve got out there in the middle, some of these contracts won’t be renewed. Cricket can be played. There’s no real physical contact there, you can keep your social distancing quite easily,” Ian Botham signed off.