Cricket World Cup: Botham delivers blunt message to England's cricketers

Eoin Morgan of England during the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup match between England and Sri Lanka. Photo / Getty Images.

Cricketing great Sir Ian Botham had a blunt message for the humiliated England team today.

"They're in a good position now: BA (British Airways) - home."

Botham is a guest at the New Zealand Open golf tournament near Queenstown this week but knew it would not be long before the conversation turned to cricket.

Asked if the Cricket World Cup had been a tough watch, he replied: "Is there something going on? I must have missed it and so did the England team.

"They were awful, to be quite frank. You get what you deserve in sport and if they want to keep playing in the 1980s style in 50-over cricket, good luck to them. The penny might have dropped - it doesn't work."

Botham and the other sporting "celebrities" taking part in the New Zealand Open gathered for a chinwag in Arrowtown today.

The banter was flying as Botham and other famously verbose sportsmen like Mark Richardson and Andrew Mehrtens assessed their chances in the tournament.

All seemed to agree former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting was the man to watch.

Ponting, once urged by the great Gary Player to play golf professionally, is playing off scratch.

The best of the rest are former Black Caps batsman Nathan Astle (4 handicap) and former England spinner Graeme Swann (5).

Australian great Shane Warne (11 handicap) is also playing in the tournament but was missing from the press conference yesterday. Others absent were West Indian great Brian Lara (illness) and former Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming, whose plane was diverted, forcing him to drive from Dunedin to Queenstown.

The $1 million New Zealand Open, featuring 140 professionals and 132 amateurs in an associated pro-am, starts at The Hills and Millbrook tomorrow.