Ashes Heroes No 33: Greg Chappell

Apologies for not posting an Ashes Heroes essay last week but our blogging software wasn't working properly in Dubai and it didn't really seem appropriate to write a long post on Anglo-Australian matters when events in Mumbai were at the forefront of our minds. Back to normal today and there will be a second essay on Friday. This week, after an Edwardian bowler, we have a South Australian batsman.

Twenty-two sets of siblings have played for either Australia or England but only one family has produced two brothers who captained their country. Ian Chappell was in charge for 16 Ashes Tests in the early 1970s, winning seven and losing four, but it is his younger brother Greg, by far the stronger batsman, who gets a place in this list.

The Chappelli, as they were known, came from a fine sporting family. Their maternal grandfather, Vic Richardon, had played for Australia in the 1920s and 1930s, captaining his country in his final Test series, while Martin Chappell, their father, was a talented grade cricketer in Adelaide who put a bat in his sons' hands as soon as they could walk and arranged for them to be coached from an early age.

Their back yard battles, which also included their younger brother Trevor, who was to play three Test matches, were fiercely contested and each Chappell brought this aggression learnt from the cradle to the international game, even if sometimes old rivalries would overspill as the brothers would argue publicly with each other even as a Test match was being played.

Greg was a brilliant schoolboy cricketer, but had a tendency to get out to weak shots on the leg side until one day he was given a coaching lesson in the South Australia dressing room by Don Bradman, by then a national selector, who advised him to change his grip to help him to play more on the off side. It was also suggested that he hone his game overseas and two seasons with Somerset, albeit not a great success statistically, gave him the experience of different wickets and attacks that made him stand out from most other young Australian batsmen.

Greg Chappell made his Test debut in 1970, a year after the death of his grandfather and two years after Ian, pictured here on the right with him, had been Australia's best batsman in the 1968 Ashes series in England. He was twelfth man in the first Test of the Ashes, but selected for the second match at Perth - the first Test to be staged at the WACA - he made a dream debut, scoring 108 at No 7 and sharing a partnership of 219 with Ian Redpath that lifted Australia from 107 for five to a position of safety.

The rest of the series was less satisfying and he went away to work again on his technique, developing a style that tried to play straighter, through the 'V' between mid-on and mid-off, until his eye was in. This bore fruit in the 1972 Ashes series in England when Chappell hit centuries in the second and fifth Tests, both of which Australia won. The former, 131 on a bowler's wicket at Lord's, was described by Richie Benaud as "close to the most flawless innings I have seen". In the latter, at the Oval, he shared in a stand of 201 for the third wicket with his brother, which helped Australia to square the series. They were the first brothers to score Test centuries in the same innings.

That match marked the turning of a corner for Australia, who had had a torrid few years that included a 4-0 series defeat in South Africa and the loss of the Ashes in 1971. In the next four and a half years, with the Chappells at the peak of their powers, Australia would lose only four Tests.

Chappell was Australia's leading batsman during the 1974-75 Ashes, when they won back the urn under his brother's captaincy. He passed 50 in five of the first six innings without making it past 100, the pain of persistent tonsillitis affecting his concentration, but scored 144 in the fourth Test at Sydney and 102 in the sixth Test. During the Perth Test of that series, Chappell broke a fielding record held by his grandfather, among others, by taking seven catches in the match.

The pain in his throat was becoming unbearable, however, and Chappell agreed to have his tonsils removed, which made a new man of him. He averaged 86 in the 1975-76 Sheffield Shield and was rewarded with the Australian captaincy, succeeding his brother. In his first series in charge, he made three hundreds and three fifties in a 5-1 win over West Indies. He was less successful against England in 1977, making only one hundred and overseeing a 3-0 series defeat.

Despite being the leading batsman in the world, Chappell, like most cricketers of the time, had to work away from the cricket field in order to be able to afford a living. He had jobs in life assurance, oil and also promoting Coca-Cola. They were unwanted distractions and it was scarcely a surprise when Chappell took Kerry Packer's dollars and joined World Series Cricket. It was a lucrative decision and he repaid Packer with an innings of 246* against West Indies, the highest score made in the tournament. But his exile from Test cricket for two years could have cost him his Australia place if he hadn't averaged 57 in 14 unofficial Packer Tests and if it wasn't for the lack of many other options.

Instead, despite some disquiet, Chappell was welcomed back and had the captaincy restored to him in 1979. He made a century against West Indies in his first Test back and had scores of 98* and 114 as Australia regained the Ashes 3-0. Runs were flowing like syrup and over the next 18 months Chappell made double hundreds against India and Pakistan (twice).

Struggling with burn-out, Chappell decided to miss the 1981 Ashes tour (a good one to miss) but returned in style in the 1982-83 series, making two hundreds as the Ashes were regained 2-1. He ended his Test career a year later, making scores of 150* and 182 against Pakistan. Few have gone out on such a high. Chappell, who had his 60th birthday this year, went on to coach South Australia and, somewhat fractiously, India.

Comments

[DT]

A bit more on the nickname issue. I recall around the time of Chappell's form slump (late 70s/early 80s?), one of the local rags announced that although it had previously not been possible to slap a convenient nickname on the great man in the same style of his brother ("Chappellg" doesn't quite scan...), the constant ducks had made it obvious that the nickname should be Chappello. (Chappell, 0 -- get it?)

[geoff of mebourne]

Re the reference to the underarm incident.
Chappell deeply regretted this for the rest of his career - he pointed out that he was remembered for one ball of the tens of thousands that were bowled while he was on the cricket field.
It might be worth noting (I am an Australian) that at the time this occurred, it was legal to bowl underarm. In the 2005 Ashes series, the English team happily admit to having smeared peppermint on one side of the ball to get it to swing, which is ball tampering in anyone's language, and this resulted in MBEs for the entire team.
Glass houses, anyone ?
PS An NZ winemaker has recently released a shiraz wine in Australia called ‘The Underarm’. Elephants and Kiwis never forget.

[Jon]

I don't think the Chappell brothers were collectively known as 'Chapelli'. In fact, the nickname was for Ian Chappell (ie: Chappell, I).

[newchum]

Re the three match 79/80 series that the Australians won 3-0. The Ashes were not contested because when the English agreed to the series they claimed that 3 matches (there were another 3 Australia vs the West Indies tests during that same summer) would have been insufficient to determine this superior team.
After the series was over there was a move in Australia to have it deemed as having been in fact 5 matches, with the first 2 retrospectively awarded to the English by default.
Alas, the MCC apparently never got around to replying to the suggestion ...

[Bob Letham]

Australia did not regain the Ashes as a consequence of its 3-0 win in 1979-80 as the Ashes were not contested since the series was arranged at short notice.

[Yabba]

I wonder if he would have made it if Trevor had bowled underarm against England instead of the Kiwis.

Now one ashes hero you may miss is Laurie Nash, the man who played one test and made sure bodyline got buried.

[m mather]

Nice article, Greg was indeed a most elegant batsman. A minor quibble - as I understad it, Chappelli referred to Ian Chappell not the brothers as a pair, it being his name as it appeared on the scoreboard: Chappell, I.

[Sinha]

Greg was at the height of his powers during the Packer years. I distinctly recall his performance from the WSC Supertests in the West Indies, where he cracked 3 centuries against the most hostile pace attack in the world. By the way, is there any one with footage from these matches ? Would love to have those.

[Ant]

He may have gone out on a high form wise, but was the Australian one day captain who instructed his brother Trevor to bowl the infamous underarm delivery. Hardly a 'high' in terms of sportsmanship really.

[S.Mahadevan]

Your article revives many memories of Greg Chappell, including his first test innings. I listened to Radio Australia's ball-by-ball broadcast of that innings. It was Keith Fletcher -- who ran out Paul Sheahan -- who was responsible for bringing Greg to the crease with Australia 5/108.
Rajan