Australia’s former top-order batter, who became the voice of cricket in 1977, marks a great 45-year stint in cricket commentary. Ian Chappell has decided to retire from cricket commentary, and the fans are busted to bid farewell to one of the great cricket commentators of their era.
Before making mic his friend, he featured in 75 Test matches for Australia, gathering 5345 runs in the format. Apart from enjoying a respectable tenure in cricket commentary, Chappell made his place in international cricket with decent stats and also led the team in 30 Tests out of 70 played.
While revealing why he has ended his commentary career, the former cricketer has revealed that it is getting tough for him to manage his health after a stroke. He stated,
“So when it comes to commentary, I’ve been thinking about it. I had a minor stroke a few years back, and I got off lucky. But it just makes everything harder. And I just thought with all the travel and, you know, walking upstairs and things like that, it’s all just going to get harder.
The interviewer of the Sunday Morning Herald asked him about his work with Kerry Packer, who was the Australian media tycoon. Chappell revealed that he was almost fired by him. He stated,
“Kerry wanted to sack me a couple of times. He used to get the shits about one-day cricket because that was his baby … With Kerry, it was just like a storm. You’d let it blow over till the next one came,”
Ian Chappell has retired as a commentator. @danny_weidler interviewed Chappelli for the second half of his weekly Sunday newspaper column. (But please, also read the first half about Paul Green) https://t.co/MZYggjWIlZ
— Rick Eyre (@rickeyrecricket.com on Bluesky) (@rickeyrecricket) August 14, 2022
