Aussie cricket legend Ian Chappell made a rare studio appearance this week when discussing England’s ‘rubbish’ batting approach in their recent series defeat against Pakistan – and many viewers would have noticed he looks very different compared to his days on Channel Nine.
Chatting with former Australian skipper Mark Taylor and sports commentator Mat Thompson on Wide World of Sports’ Outside the Rope, the man affectionately known as ‘Chappelli’ – who is 81 – outlined where England went wrong.
‘Have I ever seen spin bowling played worse than what England did? Probably never,’ he said.
‘England were hopeless.’
Chappell wasn’t finished yet, labelling Brendon McCullum – who the aggressive batting philosophy ‘Bazball’ is named after – a ‘dopey coach’.
It followed the Kiwi encouraging England’s batters to reverse sweep at every opportunity, which proved to be detrimental.
Former Aussie captain Chappell – who scored over 5300 Test runs in his career – was a talking point in June last year after he appeared on Channel 9’s The Longest Feud next to bitter rival Ian Botham, who is arguably England’s greatest ever cricketer.
You could have cut the tension with a knife in the sporting documentary, with both men accusing one another of lying.
Some viewers would have noticed ‘Chappelli’ has aged significantly in recent years
The former Aussie captain (pictured at The Oval in London in 1979) scored over 5300 Test runs in his career
Chappell (pictured interviewing Allan Border) began working as a commentator for Channel Nine’s cricket coverage in the 1980–81 season – and became an icon
Chappell has long maintained Botham once threatened him with a beer glass at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne back in 1977 after throwing him across a table – an accusation ‘Beefy’ says is ‘bulls**t’.
When Chappell labelled Botham ‘a bully and a coward’ on camera, the level of animosity went up a notch in the astonishing exchange.
Ironically, one of cricket’s most notorious and long-running rivalries did not develop mostly on the pitch.
In fact, the duo squared off just twice in Test matches as Australia swept England 3-0 in 1979-80, in hastily-arranged series as part of the settlement between World Series Cricket and the Australian Cricket Board.
Botham finished with 154 runs at 51.30 and eight wickets, while Chappell scored 152 runs at 50.70 in a series in which The Ashes were not at stake due to Australian cricket’s war with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket.
Earlier this year, Chappell declared modern day players should simply follow the laws of the sport.
It followed a ‘spirit of cricket’ row after incidents at the Under-19 World Cup and a Sheffield Shield match when NSW Blues star Chris Green was batting.
