Picture Credit: Twitter
Former Australia skipper Ian Chappell has officially announced retirement from cricket commentary after working as a commentator for 45 years. While speaking on his retirement, legendary commentator said that the media tycoon Kerry Packer wanted to sack him couple of times as he was not fond of getting shits about one-day cricket because that was his baby.
The 78-year-old Ian Chappell played for Australia national cricket team between 1964-1980 and made 75 appearances in Test cricket, scoring 5345 runs at an average of 42.42. His innings including 14 tons and 26 half-centuries. He also played 16 one-day internationals in his illustrious career and scored 673 runs at an average of 48.07, including 8 fifties.
Speaking of his retirement, Ian Chappell also revealed that he loved talking life with Wide World of Sports legend Richie Benaud. Ian was inducted into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame in 1986, the FICA Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
After his retirement from international cricket in 1980, Ian Chappell joined Cricket 9 as a commentator in the 1980-81 season and also worked for ABC as a sports journalist and commentator. Ian Chappell was recently quoted by Wide World of Sports saying that Test cricket will not die in his lifetime but surely growing popularity of T20 leagues will affect its stature. He further admitted that Australian cricket faces a stiff challenge of retaining players amidst the proliferation of lucrative T20 leagues around the world.
"Test cricket will not but who will play it? That's the big question. If you have not been able to get your best players to play the Test cricket, then it would be really tough for the best format to survive. Test cricket is good but its got to be played well", Ian Chappell said.
The legendary cricketer turned commentator further claimed that Australia which has great set to quality players will have lot of problem in future as their players will get lucrative offers from IPL-bound franchises which extends their presence in other countries as well, and players will have to make choice between country and T20 leagues. "If you've got a decent IPL contract and the choice is between Australia and your IPL franchise's UAE team, well are you going to put your IPL contract at risk?" said Ian Chappell.