Read more tributes from the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack
The drawn Ashes series of 1972 introduced a new galaxy of Australian stars to English audiences. Greg Chappell, who celebrates his 71st birthday this month, was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year after making two superb centuries.
The Chappell brothers, Ian and Greg, are destined always to live with the shadow of their famous grandfather, the former Australian captain, Victor Richardson. The key words are ‘live with’ rather than ‘live in,’ as happens with so many sportsmen who follow on from famous uncles, fathers or grandfathers. Ian and Greg are splendid Test cricketers in their own right and Greg Chappell, on the 1972 tour of England, confirmed his place as Australia’s number one batsman.
He has also his medium-pace bowling to sway the selectors, if ever they might be in any doubt about his inclusion, but these days he bowls less and less. He still has the ability to break through the partnership but the concentration now is on batting and fielding, and in the latter department he has no peer in Australia, either in close catching positions or away from the wicket. When the 1972/73 season began, he made a classic 129 off the New South Wales attack in the first game of the season in Adelaide, followed it with 77 against Queensland in effortless fashion, and then made 75 not out and 35 against NSW in the return game and another 77 against Victoria.
He is one of the new young breed of Australian cricketers who have the intense desire to see Australia back on top in international cricket. His first experience of Test cricket was to be in a losing side in a series against England, and this at the end of a disastrous five years of Australian cricket. Chappell has been part of the fight back in a team well led by his brother and with a younger brother coming along in splendid fashion in Australian first-class cricket at present. It could well be a family affair by the time England next come to Australia.
Greg Chappell went on to make 87 Test appearances, 48 of them as captain. He scored 7,110 runs at 53.86 with 24 centuries
