Ian Botham, the former England cricketer, has survived a fall into crocodile-filled waters on a fishing trip in Australia’s Northern Territory after he was rescued by his close friend and Ashes rival, Merv Hughes.

Botham, 68, got his flip-flops tangled in a rope as he tried to board a boat and fell into the Moyle River during the pair’s four-day fishing trip.

He was pulled out of the water by Hughes, 62, his close friend since they competed against each other in the 1980s. Botham suffered heavy bruising along his torso but was otherwise unscathed from his ordeal in a river which is also home to bull sharks that feed on the scraps left behind by crocodiles.

Botham joked that he is England’s version of Crocodile Dundee. “At the end of the day Crocodile Beefy survived,” he said. “I was out of the water quicker than I went in it. Quite a few sets of eyes were having a peep at me. Luckily I had no time to think about what was in the water.”

The pair were crossing a stretch of water to join other members of the fishing expedition when Botham fell in. “The guys were brilliant,” he said. “It was just one of those accidents. It was all very quick and I’m OK now.”

Botham, who was made a life peer in 2020 and appointed as the UK’s trade envoy to Australia a year later, was in the country for business and charity events. He had recently joined Hughes at a chamber of commerce speaking occasion.