Botham was scathing about England’s conduct off the field, pointing to late-night drinking sessions and breached curfews that overshadowed the campaign. “He’s a bloody good cricketer and he played well but he let himself down in those final couple of months,” Botham said. “The team going 2-0 down in Australia, one of them in two days. For me to be then seen at Noosa, one of the most popular places in Australia to holiday and, we have got five days off on the lash. I just thought that was poor. Curfews, well, they were set and they were broken.”

Botham also addressed the line in his book that reignited the feud. “In the book, I just said that right at the end, a throw away line, ‘Well, well, well, Ben Stokes, you are now a member of the has-been team’. Didn’t go down too well, not that I’m bothered.”

He contrasted the current generation’s behaviour with his own experiences of touring Australia, where players socialised at wineries between matches. “That’s out of visual and we were actually winning, so we could have paraded ourselves around a bit if we wanted, but we didn’t,” he added.