Ian Chappell

Ian Chappell

Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation. Since his retirement in 1980, he has pursued a high-profile career as a sports journalist and cricket commentator. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

About Ian Chappell in brief

Summary Ian ChappellIan Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009. Since his retirement in 1980, he has pursued a high-profile career as a sports journalist and cricket commentator, predominantly with Channel Nine. He has been described as one of the greatest captains the game has ever seen. His father was a noted Adelaide grade cricketers, and his maternal grandfather was famous all-round sportsman Vic Richardson. His grandfather and brother also captained the Australian cricket team. In 2006, Shane Warne called Chappel the biggest influence on his career. He is married to the former South Australian international cricket team captain and mother of two. He also has two sons, Greg and Trevor, who also played for the Australian national team. He spent the northern summer of 1963 as a professional in England’s Lancire League with Lancashire and played a single first-class match against Cambridge University. In 1963–64, he batted at number three for SA for the time, in a match against Queensland at Brisbane and scored 205 not out. In 1964, he was the youngest member of the SA team that won the Sheffield Shield, and he showed promise as a leg-spinner. He made his Test debut against Pakistan at Melbourne in December 1964, but was dropped until the Fourth Test in 1965–66.

In the same season, he made his first century for SA against Victoria in Sheffield Shield. In 1966, he played for SA in the Claxton Shield and he was selected for the All-Australian selection in 1964 and 1966 as a catcher. He credits Vic Richardson, who had represented both SA and Australia in baseball during the 1920s, for his love of the sport. He had an idiosyncratic method of playing back and across to a ball of full length and driving wide of mid-on, but his trademark shot was the hook, famously saying \”three bouncers an over should be worth 12 runs to me\”. He was the fourth player to take one hundred Test catches, including three against England in 1966. He played his first Test match against New South Wales in 1962–63, and was bemused by the young batsman’s habit of gritting his teeth as he faced up; to Richie Benaud, it looked as if he was grinning. He then enrolled at Prince Alfred College, a private secondary school noted for producing many Test crickets, including the Australian captains Joe Darling and Clem Hill. His other sporting pursuits included Australian football and baseball: Ch appell’s performances for South South Australia in theClaxton Shield won him All- Australian selection in1964 and 1966. In 1967, he became the youngest player to play for the Queensland state cricket team in a Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at Brisbane. In 1968, he captained South Australia at the age of 18.