Read the astonishing exchange between cricket legends and arch-rivals Ian Chappell and Ian Botham

The intense hatred Ian Chappell and Ian Botham have for one another stretching back 45 years is well known in elite cricket circles – and on Tuesday night fans saw it first hand.

Channel 9 screened The Longest Feud – and you could have cut the tension with a knife in the sporting documentary.

Former Aussie skipper Chappell, 79, and one-time England captain Botham, 67, went toe-to-toe in a gripping interview, with both accusing the other of lying.

Chappell has long maintained Botham once threatened him with a beer glass at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne back in 1977 after throwing him across a table – an accusation ‘Beefy’ says is ‘bullshit.’

When Chappell labelled Botham ‘a bully and a coward’ on camera, the level of animosity went up a notch in the astonishing exchange.

Former Australian Test captain Ian Chappell also didn’t hold back, labelling Ian Botham a ‘bully and a coward’ 

Botham and Chappell sat down for Channel Nine’s documentary ‘The Longest Feud’ and gave fans a first-hand look at why their hatred is still strong after 45 years

Here was how it unfolded.

Botham: Coward? Who am I a coward of?

Chappell: Well, you stick an empty beer glass in a bloke’s face, that’s a cowardly act.

Botham: Why on earth would I need a glass?

Chappell: ‘Cause you’re a coward. 

Botham: I’ll tell you what, in a minute I’ll show you what I can do if you keep on. A coward? I am many things but I’m not a coward.’

A fired Botham then described Chappell as ‘sad and lonely’.

Both cricket greats maintain their version of events from the Melbourne bar more than four decades ago is the accurate tale.

Botham is adamant he simply stood up for himself, and feels Chappell was embarrassed to be manhandled by the all-rounder, who at the time was 21 and playing grade cricket in Melbourne.

And if the documentary is any guide, it appears highly unlikely the pair will ever patch up their differences.

The rivals also worked together – once – in commentary for Channel Nine during an Ashes match in Australia.

Botham and Chappell reportedly had a heated confrontation at the Adelaide Oval during the 2010 Ashes series while working as commentators

Chappell insisted the exchange wasn’t serious and that he was not the instigator 

Barely a word was said on live television as the level of awkwardness reached boiling point.

In 2010 – again during an Ashes series – they had a reported confrontation in Adelaide, which Chappell later insisted ‘wasn’t serious’. 

Ironically, one of cricket’s most notorious and long-running rivalries did not develop mostly on the pitch.

In fact, the duo squared off just twice in Test matches as Australia swept England 3-0 in 1979-80, in hastily-arranged series as part of the settlement between World Series Cricket and the Australian Cricket Board.

Botham finished with 154 runs at 51.30 and eight wickets, while Chappell scored 152 runs at 50.70 in a series in which The Ashes were not at stake due to Australian cricket’s war with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket.