Gregory Stephen Chappell was born on 7 August 1948 and is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals.
62 Facts About Greg Chappell
1.
2.
The second of three brothers to play Test cricket, Chappell was the pre-eminent Australian batsman of his time who allied elegant stroke making to fierce concentration.
3.
An exceptional all round player who bowled medium pace and, at his retirement, held the world record for the most catches in Test cricket, Greg Chappell's career straddled two eras as the game moved toward a greater level of professionalism after the WSC schism.
4.
Greg Chappell was steeped in the game from a very early age: his father Martin was a noted grade cricketer in Adelaide who put a bat in his hands as soon as he could walk, while his maternal grandfather was the all-round sportsman Vic Richardson, who had captained Australia in Test cricket.
5.
Elder brother Ian and younger brother Trevor played for Australia, and Greg Chappell closely followed in Ian's footsteps to the top.
6.
The fraternal relationship between Ian and Greg Chappell became legendary in Australian cricketing history for volatile verbal slanging matches, even during hard fought Test matches, which had their genesis in the family backyard.
7.
Greg Chappell attended St Leonards primary school, where he played his first competitive match at the age of eight; he played a lot of baseball.
8.
Quite small for his age, Greg Chappell developed a technique for dealing with the high bouncing ball by playing most of his shots to the leg side.
9.
Greg Chappell was then enrolled at Plympton high school for two years before following brother Ian and attending Prince Alfred College on a scholarship.
10.
Greg Chappell recalled himself being an "economical" student whose mind often wandered to the cricket field during class.
11.
The Greg Chappell brothers played grade cricket for Glenelg and they batted together for the first time in a semi final against Port Adelaide in early 1966.
12.
Greg Chappell seized the opportunity by scoring 101*, 102* and 88 for his club, then made his first-class debut against Victoria at Adelaide Oval, aged 18.
13.
The highlight of Greg Chappell's season was a brilliant 154 against Western Australia, but his continuing preference for leg side shots was seen as a weakness if he wanted to make Test cricket.
14.
Hitherto, Greg Chappell bowled leg spin, but after his growth spurt had found it difficult to land the ball on a consistent length.
15.
However, the dream start affected Greg Chappell, who struggled for the rest of the series, apart from a score of 65 in the last Test.
16.
Greg Chappell invented what became known as the Chappell "vee" where he played the ball exclusively in a narrow arc between mid off and mid on until he felt he had his eye in.
17.
Greg Chappell managed to bring up a well-deserved century just before the close of play on Day Two, and batted for a further hour-and-a-half the next day before he was bowled by Basil D'Oliveira.
18.
Greg Chappell had batted for over six hours and hit 14 boundaries.
19.
Greg Chappell himself rated this his best innings, as did Richie Benaud, who wrote:.
20.
In recognition of his outstanding 1972 Ashes tour, Greg Chappell was named, along with fellow Australians Bob Massie, Dennis Lillee and Keith Stackpole, as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1973.
21.
Greg Chappell then departed for Australia's first Test-playing tour of New Zealand.
22.
The Chappell brothers shattered records in the Wellington Test, as Ian and Greg scored centuries in both innings, the only such instance.
23.
Greg Chappell was the backbone of Australia's sometimes inconsistent batting, scoring 608 runs at 55.3.
24.
At Sydney, where Australia won to reclaim the Ashes, Greg Chappell dominated with 84 and 144, which he followed up with a century in a losing cause in the sixth Test at Melbourne.
25.
Greg Chappell reluctantly had his tonsils removed, but he quickly lost a lot of weight which affected his performance on the tour of England that followed.
26.
Greg Chappell played in the World Cup, then made only one good score in the four Ashes Tests that followed.
27.
Greg Chappell's personal highlight was a classic 182* in the Sydney Test.
28.
Greg Chappell was able to parlay his position into a reasonable income with his Queensland contract and personal endorsements, but he still needed to develop business interests in life insurance outside the game.
29.
Australia received much criticism for defensive play during a drawn series with Pakistan, but Greg Chappell's form was faultless, and he scored 121 and 67 in the only Test victory.
30.
When play resumed, the ensuing din from the incident caused Greg Chappell to mis-hear his partner's call for a run, and he found himself run out.
31.
Greg Chappell formally signed a WSC contract the following month, during the Centenary Test, a one-off match against England commemorating one hundred years of Test cricket.
32.
Greg Chappell was offered the most lucrative WSC contract in line with his age and high profile as captain of Australia.
33.
News of the WSC break away was leaked early in the tour, and Greg Chappell quickly found himself besieged.
34.
Greg Chappell, who was a tremendous player of pace bowling, is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen ever to play for Australia.
35.
Greg Chappell was happy for brother Ian to captain the WSC Australian team, which allowed him to concentrate on his batting.
36.
Greg Chappell never missed an opportunity to slip into a cap when facing medium pace or spin.
37.
Doctors and family advised him to miss the trip, but Greg Chappell was determined to go and utilise a modified technique he had devised for facing the relentless fast bowling.
38.
Greg Chappell was the far from unanimous choice, but led the Test team in twin series, against England and West Indies, and the first triangular ODI series where Australia failed to reach the final.
39.
Greg Chappell led by example in scoring 74 and 124 in the Brisbane Test against the West Indies in his comeback to Test cricket.
40.
Greg Chappell's 98* guided Australia to victory over England at Sydney, then 114 and 40* extracted a similar result at Melbourne.
41.
One of only four players who played both matches, Greg Chappell scored 47 and 59, but his best remembered contribution to the match was an attempted citizen's arrest of an MCC member who attacked one of the umpires in a very ill-tempered scene.
42.
Greg Chappell was in good form throughout the summer, but managed only two international centuries.
43.
The first came at Sydney in an ODI against New Zealand, when Greg Chappell set a then record Australian score of 138*.
44.
From 1981 onwards, Greg Chappell did not make himself available for most overseas tours.
45.
Greg Chappell retired as captain in 1983, playing his last test series under Hughes as captain.
46.
Greg Chappell was batsman of the ODI team concurrently with his Test captaincy, registering 21 wins and 25 losses from 49 matches; all but four of these matches were after the end of World Series Cricket, and Greg Chappell never captained Australia in a Cricket World Cup tournament.
47.
Greg Chappell played his last Test match in January 1984, making 182 in his final innings.
48.
Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, scored a century in the first Test match and later alleged that the coach Greg Chappell had asked him to step down as captain on the eve of the game.
49.
Shortly after Greg Chappell retired from cricket he was appointed selector for the Australian team and became a member of the Australian Cricket Board.
50.
Greg Chappell resigned from both positions in mid-1988, before the Australian team revived but by which time many key players in that revival had been selected, including David Boon, Geoff Marsh, Merv Hughes and Steve Waugh.
51.
Greg Chappell was made a selector of the Australian national side on 29 October 2010, replacing Merv Hughes.
52.
Greg Chappell earned about US$175,000 as salary from the BCCI every year.
53.
Greg Chappell resigned after reports that none of the senior players, including Tendulkar, were happy with him and his coaching methods.
54.
Greg Chappell handed debuts to Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina, who were all part of India's squad in the successful 2011 World Cup campaign.
55.
Greg Chappell has served as an academy coach for the Rajasthan Royals, and was hired as the All Stars Coach for the 2008 Twenty20 match against Australia.
56.
Greg Chappell serves as the executive coach for a series of Cricket Summer Camps in the United States as part of Chappell Way.
57.
Greg Chappell has worked as a cricket commentator for both Channel 9 and ABC radio.
58.
Greg Chappell married Judith Elizabeth Donaldson, a schoolteacher from Bexley in New South Wales, in 1971.
59.
The couple had three children: older son Stephen was born in 1975, Belinda was born in 1977 just before Greg Chappell's departure for the 1977 Ashes tour, and younger son Jonathan was born in 1980.
60.
Greg Chappell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1979 New Year Honours.
61.
Greg Chappell was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Australia Day Honours for "distinguished service to cricket as a leading player, captain, coach and administrator at the elite level, and to a range of charitable foundations".
62.
Greg Chappell was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986.