Botham silent on affair as he goes fishing
Ian Botham is remaining tight-lipped about newspaper reports of an extramarital affair with an Australian waitress.
The former England cricket captain issued a public apology to his wife and family after the relationship was disclosed in the News Of The World.
But speaking at the traditional opening to the salmon fishing season at Kenmore in Scotland today, Botham refused to say anything else.
He said: "I issued a statement yesterday and there is nothing more to say."
Botham is a keen angler and braved freezing conditions to perform the traditional ceremony of throwing a quaich of whisky into the water before going out in the first fishing party of the Tay salmon season.
The 45-year-old cricketer said yesterday he was "extremely sorry" after the newspaper reported that he and single mother Kylie Verrells, 31, began an affair after meeting in Sydney on New Year's Eve 1998 while he was commentating on the Ashes tour.
She told the newspaper he had treated her like royalty, taking her and her seven-year-old daughter Georgia to Scotland, travelling with her to Paris and sending her saucy e-mails.
Six weeks after they first met when she served him lunch in a restaurant, Botham returned to his wife Kathy, 42, in Yorkshire, but he and Ms Verrells met again when he went to New Zealand to film a television programme, the newspaper reported.
She told the paper she had eventually realised Botham would not leave his wife.
Botham's autobiography was subtitled Don't Tell Kath. He said in a statement: "This is obviously a very difficult time for my family and friends. I am extremely sorry for the distress and embarrassment I have caused to them and in particular to my wife."
