Greg Chappell - Dream Debut and Problems

Dream Debut and Problems

Entering the 1969-70 season, Chappell hit four hundreds to earn a place on an Australian A trip to New Zealand. Scoring 519 runs at 57.70, he was the dominant batsman of the tour and with the Test team failing in South Africa, he only needed a solid start to the next season to force his way in to play against England in the 1970-71 Ashes Series. After acting as twelfth man in the first Test, he was selected to bat at number seven for the second match, the first Test played at Perth's WACA ground. During an historic century on debut, he teamed with Ian Redpath to add 219 runs and haul Australia out of a difficult situation. Just days after the Test, he belted 102 in two hours against the English in a tour match. However, the dream start affected Chappell, who struggled for the rest of the series, apart from a score of 65 in the last Test. In the main, he was getting out by playing too many big shots early in his innings.

The inconsistent form continued the following season, when he was omitted from the Australian team for the series with a Rest of the World XI. Press criticism led to a rethink of his mental approach, and when reinstated a new Chappell emerged. He 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. This reorganisation brought him scores of 115* and 197* in the third and fourth unofficial Tests. He truly emerged as one of the great batsman on the subsequent tour of England, where his 131 in the Lords Test on a bowlers' wicket was considered a modern classic. Chappell himself rated this his best innings, as did Richie Benaud, who recently wrote:

...I thought it close to the most flawless innings I had seen and I still believe that to be the case. It was beautifully elegant with wonderfully executed strokes, great technique and it exhibited a deep knowledge of what was needed to square the series

His game went from strength to strength. In the fifth Test at the Oval, he hit another ton, sharing a big partnership with Ian as they became the first brothers to score Test centuries in the same innings. Against Pakistan he made 116* and 62 at Melbourne and bagged 5 for 61 at Sydney. On the subsequent trip to the West Indies, he achieved the rare feat of scoring a thousand runs on a Caribbean tour, which included 106 in the Test at Bridgetown, Barbados. With the Australian team now undergoing a dramatic renaissance, Chappell was the leading batsman, giving him a huge national profile. This brought a lucrative offer to move to Brisbane and captain the Queensland side, as a precursor to taking over the Australian captaincy when Ian decided to retire. He made the move in the winter of 1973.