The Australian Cricket team has seen many iconic cricketers who have embraced the team’s performance throughout their careers. One of those legendary cricketers is the former Australian top-order batter, Greg Chappell. On this day (August 7) in 1948, Chappell was born to Martin and Jeanne Chappell.
Chappell’s birth was very special as it was the month of the end of a glorious Test career of the greatest cricketer ever Sir Don Bradman. Bradman said goodbye to his legendary Test career on August 18, 1948, just 11 days after Chappell’s birth. But little did he know that he would go past Bradman and become the first Australian to score 7000 runs in the Test format.
Chappel made his Test debut in the 1970-71 Ashes series against England and became the 10th Australian player to hit a century in his debut match. Since then, he never looked back and smashed 7110 runs in 87 Test matches in his career at an impressive average of 53.86, which included 31 half-centuries and 24 centuries.
He also played 74 ODI matches but didn’t have a great time in white-ball cricket as he scored 2331 runs at a decent average of 40.18, which included 14 fifties and 3 centuries. Chappel had a great time while playing for Australia, however, after his retirement he decided to become a coach.
He started working as a consultant at the National Cricket Academy of Pakistan. However, in 2005 he signed a 2-year contract with the Indian Cricket Board as a coach. But his tenure was full of controversies after his infamous feud with former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly came to the fore.
Just four months of Chappel’s appointment as the head coach, Ganguly was sacked from the captaincy and a negative atmosphere was created inside the team. Both of them started having regular arguments and verbal fights. Later, Chappell decided not to renew his contract and resigned from the post.