Chappell suffered a squamous cell carcinoma on his shoulder in August 2018 and visited doctors after he felt a lump under his arm. The doctors determined the cancer was spreading and decided to be aggressive in their treatment.

The 75-year-old has had cancers removed from his neck, shoulder and underarm over the course of his treatment so far.

“I didn’t tell too many people early on,” Chappell told The Daily Telegraph. “Mainly because I just wasn’t sure what the radiotherapy would involve and how weary I’d be. But as it turned out, it wasn’t so bad. A bit of tiredness at night and a bit of skin irritation, but other than that I’m feeling pretty good.”

[caption id=”attachment_114220″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Ian Chappell played 75 Tests for Australia between 1964 and 1980[/caption]

Chappell, who has been a commentator for Channel Nine since 1980, said that he had fought off numerous skin cancers over the years, but had never had any melanomas. He said he decided to seek medical treatment after seeing his mother shortly before she died.

“I’ve had multiple skin cancers cut off, burnt off and every other way you can get rid of them. You get to 70 and you start to think, ‘it’s getting near the end now.’ But I saw my mother, Jeanne, near the end and she’d come to grips with death, and that’s probably when I thought, ‘this is something you need to deal with’.”

Chappell made his Test debut in 1964, making 14 centuries in his career including four Ashes tons. He captained the Aussies between 1970 and 1975. Since his retirement in 1980, he has been one of the most recognisable voices in Australian cricket commentary and has even volunteered his services for this year’s Ashes series.

“With the Ashes coming up now, I’ll speak to Nine and just say, ‘look, I’m ready to go if you need me.’”