Botham caught out by nude pic

London - Former England all-rounder Ian Botham was embarrassed on Monday when a photograph of a naked man appeared on his Twitter page.

The explicit picture, accompanied by a suggestive message, was quickly removed and Botham claimed that his account - @BeefyBotham, which has over 310 000 followers -- had been hacked.

Former Welsh footballer Robbie Savage alerted Botham to the image by writing on Twitter: "mate think you been hacked."

Botham, 58, replied: "Yes mate just changed my password !!! There's some idiots out there !!"

The former England captain, one of his country's greatest ever players, jokingly thanked the person responsible for posting the picture.

"I would like to thank the hacker....I've just got 500 hits in 20mins !!" he tweeted, later adding: "Make that 700 in 25 mins !!!"