Грег Чэппел: Австралийский Крикет и Семейная Династия

Australian cricketer

Gregory Stephen Chappell (born 7 August 1948) is a former cricketer who represented Australia at international level in both Tests and One Day Internationals (ODI). 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. An exceptional all round player who bowled medium pace and, at his retirement, held the world record for the most catches in Test cricket, Chappell's career straddled two eras as the game moved toward a greater level of professionalism after the WSC schism. He was the vice captain of the Australian squad which finished as runners up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Since his retirement as a player in 1984, Chappell has pursued various business and media interests as well as maintaining connections to professional cricket; he has been a selector for national and Queensland teams, a member of the Australian Cricket Board, and a coach.

Born in Unley, South Australia, Chappell was the second of three sons born in Adelaide to Arthur Martin and Jeanne Ellen (née Richardson), a Cornish Australian family. He 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. Elder brother Ian and younger brother Trevor also played for Australia, and Greg closely followed in Ian's footsteps to the top. Given weekly lessons by coach Lynn Fuller, the brothers fought out fierce backyard cricket matches, with no holds barred. The fraternal relationship between Ian and Greg 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. Chappell attended St Leonards primary school, where he played his first competitive match at the age of eight; he also played a lot of baseball. Quite small for his age, Chappell developed a technique for dealing with the high bouncing ball by playing most of his shots to the leg side. Aged twelve, he hit his first centuries and was selected for the South Australian state schools team. He was then enrolled at Plympton high school for two years before following brother Ian and attending Prince Alfred College on a scholarship. Chappell recalled himself being an "economical" student whose mind often wandered to the cricket field during class. In the summer of 1964–65, Chappell suddenly grew ten centimetres in seven weeks and within twelve months had shot up to 189 cm. With this greater physical presence, Chappell was able to dominate schoolboy matches; in one of his matches for the school's First XI he scored a double ton and combined with classmate (and future Test teammate) Ashley Woodcock to put on more than 300 runs for the first wicket against Scotch College. Hampered by a throat infection, Chappell still managed 53 and 62* to earn an extended trial in the team. The remainder of the season brought another 386 runs in 14 innings, including a maiden century against Queensland. With the return of the Test players the following summer, Chappell held his place in the South Australian side and was promoted to the number four position, following brother Ian at number three. The highlight of 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. During a brief dressing room encounter with the great Don Bradman, then a state and national selector, Chappell was advised to change his grip on the bat in order to improve his off side play. Without hesitation, Chappell made the recommended change and at season's end, wrote to the English county team Somerset, asking for a contract to play county cricket to further his development. During two seasons with the county, Chappell scored 2493 first class runs at a moderate average of 30. Hitherto, Chappell bowled leg spin, but after his growth spurt had found it difficult to land the ball on a consistent length. The green pitches in England encouraged him to experiment with seam up medium pace, which produced immediate results: he finished with 71 wickets for Somerset, including 7 for 40 against Yorkshire at Leeds in 1969. In his first season, he was capped by Somerset after belting the Middlesex attack for three hours in making 148. Shortly after was hit a severe blow to the eye when hooking at a bouncer from England fast bowler John Snow in a match against Sussex. In between these stints in England, Chappell scored 707 runs (including two centuries) in the 1968–69 Australian season, which made him a favourite to break into the Australian squad for the tour of India and South Africa. His subsequent omission in favour of West Australian unknown Jock Irvine cause a sensation at the time.

Chappell instigated the underarm bowling incident in the New Zealand–Australia One Day International on 1 February 1981. With the series tied at 1–1, Australia looked to have gained the upper hand by batting first and setting New Zealand a chase of 235 runs. Undisciplined bowling and fielding by the Australians, and a great innings from Kiwi opener Bruce Edgar narrowed the target to 15 with one over to play. Chappell's younger brother, Trevor, a batting all rounder who specialised in bowling at the end of an innings, delivered the final over. From the first five balls, Trevor Chappell took two for 8, leaving the new batsman (Brian McKechnie) to score a six to tie the game. At this point, Greg Chappell intervened, told his brother to deliver the ball along the ground (i. e. underarm) and he then informed the umpire to let the batsman know of the change of bowling style. Despite the protestations of wicketkeeper Rod Marsh, the ball was delivered and the batsman simply put his bat in front of the ball to stop. He then hurled his bat away. A large crowd of 50,000 – mostly Australian – loudly booed the Australian team from the field. The New Zealand Prime Minister Rob Muldoon said it was "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket", the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said it was "contrary to the traditions of the game", and the Chappells' decision was universally condemned. Both brothers have expressed regret and embarrassment over the incident.

Chappell's first overseas tour as the coach of the Indian team was to Zimbabwe in September 2005. Sourav Ganguly, the Indian captain, scored a century in the first Test match and later alleged that coach Chappell had asked him to step down as captain on the eve of the game. This was widely covered by the Indian media. Ganguly was later dropped from the Indian cricket team by the selectors on the grounds of poor form, but many in the media suggested his omission was influenced by the previous row with Chappell.

In his new book, Chappell gave rise to fresh controversy by claiming that Rahul Dravid as captain didn't receive the kind of support he gave to other captains and his success was not enjoyed by some of his teammates.

Shortly after Chappell retired from cricket he was appointed selector for the Australian team and also became a member of the Australian Cricket Board. This was a time of rebuilding for the national side, with many players lost through retirement and the South African rebel tours. He 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. Among the decisions made by the panel when Chappell was a selector included encouraging Kim Hughes to resign, not selecting Hughes for the 1985 Ashes, trying Wayne Phillips, Greg Dyer and Tim Zoehrer as wicket keepers, and fast tracking Craig McDermott and Ian Healy into the national side.

Chappell was made a selector of the Australian national side on 29 October 2010, replacing Merv Hughes. The "Argus Review" led to Chappell, along with selector Andrew Hilditch and coach Tim Nielsen, being sacked in August 2011. It emerged at the time that Chappell was banned from the Australian dressing room at the request of the players.

From the late 1990s Chappell coached South Australia for five seasons during which time the team failed to win a single trophy.

In May 2005, he was appointed coach of the Indian national cricket team for a two year term until the World Cup 2007. He earned about US$175,000 as salary from the BCCI every year. This role was the subject of much negative public and media commentary, for his tinkering with the batting lineup and his coaching methods. Several senior Indian players whom Chappell coached have come out to criticise his methods, including Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Zaheer Khan His comments also did not go down well with the Indian public. Ultimately, his coaching and methods came into question as India crashed out of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the first round, the first time since the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Chappell resigned after reports that none of the senior players, including Tendulkar, were happy with him and his coaching methods. His rift with India's captain Sourav Ganguly and poor performances of the team at the 2007 World Cup made Chappell a dark figure in the history of Indian Cricket. Despite the popular perception that Chappell's tenure as coach was an unsuccessful one, he had a hand in laying the foundations of the team that went on to win the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2011 Cricket World Cup. He handed debuts to Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina, who were all part of India's squad in the successful 2011 World Cup campaign. R. P. Singh, who was India's top wicket taker with 12 scalps in their successful campaign for the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, and Robin Uthappa, another member of the winning squad, were also handed their debuts by Chappell. Sreesanth and Munaf were also part of the Indian squad for the 2007 World T20.

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. He also serves as the executive coach for a series of Cricket Summer Camps in the United States as part of Chappell Way.

Chappell has worked as a cricket commentator for both Channel 9 and ABC radio.

During the early part of his career, since being a cricketer was not yet a full time profession, Chappell worked in a variety of jobs, including at a life assurance firm, an oil company, and as a promotions officer with Coca Cola bottlers in Adelaide. He married Judith Elizabeth Donaldson, a schoolteacher from Bexley in New South Wales, in 1971. The couple had three children: older son Stephen was born in 1975, Belinda was born in 1977 just before Chappell's departure for the 1977 Ashes tour, and younger son Jonathan was born in 1980. From an early age, Jonathan chose to pursue baseball, which his father and uncle had also played during their childhood, and played Minor League Baseball from 2004 to 2005. Chappell was a vegan.

Chappell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1979 New Year Honours. He 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". Chappell was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986. In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.