5 cricketers who filed a defamation suit

#1 Ian Botham and Allan Lamb versus Imran Khan

Allan Lamb (centre) leaves court with wife Lindsay (left) and Kathy Botham

Back in the mid 1990s, legendary Pakistan captain Imran Khan claimed in an interview to India Today that England cricketers Ian Botham and Allan Lamb held racist tendencies. In a newspaper column for The Sun, he aggravated his attack on Botham by alleging that the star England all-rounder had indulged in ball tampering during his career.

Both Botham and Lamb filed a libel suit against Imran Khan. However, in a remarkable reverse, the court in England ruled in the Pakistan icon's favour. The two England cricketers were asked to pay damages worth half a million pounds and Imran stunningly ended up winning a lawsuit that he was widely believed to lose. It remains one of the most famous instances relating to defamation suits in the game.