The year was 1973-1974 and cricket returned to Christchurch in the form of a test match between Australia and New Zealand. In the cricketing arena Australia is always considered the big brother when they play the Kiwis. However, the cricketing rivalry between the two neighbours has always been intense and real. In that test match, the Kiwis had two world class performers in Glen Turner and the great Richard Hadlee. True to their stature, Glen Turner scored a century in each innings and Richard Hadlee took 7/131 in the test match. It was a tight contest and a classic test match where fortunes changed every session.
During the course of the test match, Australian captain Ian Chappell had several altercations with the Kiwis. It is widely believed that this happened because Australia was unable to digest an imminent defeat at the hands of their younger brother. It is one of the most amusing cricketing rivalries of world cricket where the two teams consider each other brothers and yet go out of the way to defeat the other.
Things became ugly in the match when Kiwi batsman Hastings hit Ashley Mallett over mid-on for what looked to be a six. Umpire Bob Monteith didn’t realise that it had gone to the fence one bounce and signalled six. It was clearly a wrong signal. This infuriated Ian Chappell who had an argument with both the umpire and the Kiwi batsmen at the crease. Glen Turner in the meantime had already requested the umpire to change his decision but things had already become ugly by then. In the end, New Zealand won a closely fought test match and Ian Chappell’s side got the tag of the “Ugly Australians”. In defence of Ian Chappell, it has to be said that his altercation with the umpire was genuine because umpire Bob Monteith had initially given the wrong signal. Any competitive captain would not want an extra two runs to be given to the rival team.
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Over the years, Australian cricket has been described in many ways. It is said that the Kangaroos play cricket hard but fair. This was most evident in an incident involving an Australian first class cricketer Raymond Jordon. The year was 1969/1970 and the Australians were on a tour of India. The incident took place during a game when Australia was playing South Zone. Jordon kept wickets in this game with great Indian off-spinner EAS Prasanna batting at the crease. Prasanna was facing Alan Connolly with wicket-keeper Jordon standing up to the stumps. Prasanna missed the ball and his off stump was knocked out. Prasanna walked but Ian Chappell rightly believed that the ball had missed Prasanna’s stumps and rebounded off Jordon’s pads to break the wicket. Chappell felt that Jordon knew what had happened and yet didn’t confess to the truth. Ian Chappell was so agitated that he declared that he would never play in the same side as Jordon. Jordon never played test cricket for Australia.
Those who followed Australian cricket in the 1970s would remember that the perception of Ian Chappell’s Australian side was that of aggressive, unkind cricketers. This was a myth because Ian Chappell was known to oblige autograph seekers on the ground. His fondness for children was evident. He was known to satisfy every autograph hunter even if it meant staying at the ground well after the match was over.
If ever there was a cricketer who was happy to stand up for a just cause, it was Ian Chappell. He championed refugee rights for over two decades. He helped launch the United Nations fund-raising campaign for Afghan refugees. He was extremely vocal about his concern for the impact of the war on cricket in Afghanistan. At times he even criticised the Australian government when they were found lacking in their commitment to support the refugees.
Ian Chappell was the ultimate team player and did not hesitate to rebuke his teammates if they were under-performing. An incident involving the great Rodney Marsh stands out. Marsh was having a bad day with the gloves and Ian Chappell reminded him that he was not picked in the side for his good looks!
In a test match at the MCG in 1974/75, the Austrian Cricket Board made huge profits out of gate receipts. Yet the board did not share the financial earnings with the players. Ian Chappell did not hesitate to contest the matter with someone as big as Sir Donald Bradman whom he accused of not giving the players their dues.
Another fine example of Ian Chappell’s ethical stance in cricket came when he refused the BCCI commentary contract because the Indian cricket board wanted the commentators to follow the BCCI diktat and not be critical of the board. This was unacceptable to Ian who wanted to talk freely about the selection policies of the BCCI and wanted to express his views about the DRS system. Chappell was unwilling to impose the unreasonable BCCI restrictions on himself and didn’t mind losing the commentary job.
Ian Chappell was one of the first cricketers to give importance to the skill of playing on spinning wickets in India. He rated it as one of the greatest challenges in cricket and openly confessed that EAS Prasanna was the finest bowler he had ever faced. He stood for what is known as the Australian way of playing cricket—hard but fair. He wasn’t an ‘Ugly Australian’.
Kush Singh @singhkb is the founder of The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Views are personal.