Famouos Cricketers No 92 - Ian Chappell

African team to date. Chappell’s reputation as a thorn in the side of the more insensitive branch of Australian administration began when he was the first to say ‘No’ to a projected extra Test match. “I stood up and said I wouldn’t be in it unless each player was paid an extra £500,” he wrote later. “What I really objected to was the principle. The players were being moved around like so many chess players by the administrators.” Australians clamoured for a new Test captain when Ray Illingworth’s England side got the upper hand in the 1970/71 Ashes series. Chappell, as vice-captain and captain of South Australia was the obvious choice to most. “I knew I wasn’t really the man the Australian Board wanted,” he said. “I believed then that the Board would have much preferred a ‘Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir’ captain.” His cynicism about the competence of the average administrator was compounded when Lawry, whose batting had been outstanding despite the worries about his captaincy, was omitted from the Test team. It was a different kind of Chappell team to the one we associate with him, with the attack based on two leg spinners. “I was a captain who used his spinners as the focal point of the attack, so the selectors were building the attack around my captaincy.” Fortunately for the future of Australian cricket the man chosen to take the shine off the new ball was a West Australian tearaway called Dennis Lillee. He, more than anyone, was to make Chappell’s reputation. That Test at Sydney was lost by 62 runs, Lawry’s replacement scoring just 5 and 0. Chappell’s side began to come together in 1971/72. Australia were due to play South Africa, but the tour was called off as the anti-apartheid campaign began to bite world-wide. Stackpole had become a successful opening batsman during the Ashes series, and Chappell’s younger brother Greg established himself as a middle order batsman. In the series of unofficial Tests against a Rest of the World XI led by Garry Sobers Lillee came through as the first fast bowler of frightening pace for a decade, and the brief career of a swing bowler called Bob Massie got under way. The new-look was not Chappell’s doing, though, and he was as surprised as anyone when the selectors discarded old hands Ian Redpath and Graham McKenzie for the 1972 Ashes tour. Both could have performed better than some of the fringe performers in that series, as we can see in retrospect. Chappell’s team grew in stature after a poor start and only Underwood and a damaged pitch enabled England to draw the series and retain the Ashes. It was in these two series, with his fast bowlers dominant, that Chappell demonstrated his theory that the seam attack needed a slip cordon to take wickets no matter what the batsman did. When Sobers made a thrilling 254 in Melbourne it was noted Australia kept two slips and a gully throughout. Chappell the spin-orientated captain was converted through a combination of English wickets and some gentle nudging from wicket-keeper Rod Marsh. In 1972/73 he had an immediate clash with the South Australian Cricket Association over the selection of Younis Ahmed for the state team. After a home series against Pakistan he led Australia to the West Indies and was successful despite the loss of Lillee to a back injury, Max Walker and Jeff Hammond stepping up to lead the attack. At one time Walker had been bowling for 90 minutes when a spectator called out: “My God, Chappell, you are going to kill him”. An over later Walker had Charlie Davis caught at the wicket. Chappell just turned in the direction of the barracker and shrugged. “It seemed that whatever Chappell demanded of his men they willingly gave,” said the West Indies Cricket Annual when naming him one of their Five Cricketers of the Year. He scored 97 in the Third Test when Gibbs and Willett were exploiting a turning pitch and made a six-hour century in the Fourth Test. 5