Greg Chappell recalls incredible debut Test innings 50 years on

It was one of the most momentous innings in cricket history. Fifty years ago a new star arrived and the game’s TV coverage turned on its head.

Brothers Ian (left) and Greg Chappell.

It was the innings which stopped a nation and helped start a revolution.

It’s 50 years next week since Greg Chappell brought everything in Australia to a standstill ... except the nightly news.

Chappell played one of the most iconic innings in Australian history when he launched his Test career against England in Perth on December 11, 1970, with a precocious 108.

It was bookended by fight at one end and flair at the finish and could not have been a more pressure-laden or dramatic entrance given it was an Ashes Test, Perth’s first ever, and that he walked to the wicket with Australia eyeball-deep in trouble at 5-107 chasing England’s 397.

And, of course, he was Ian Chappell‘s little brother, Victor Richardson’s grandson and considered a batting blue blood long before he arrived on the big stage way down at No.7 as an all-rounder in place of leg-spinner Terry Jenner.

Chappell and Ian Redpath (171) added 219 for the sixth wicket in the drawn Test as the graceful 22-year-old become the 11th Australian to make a Test century on debut.

Chappell walked to the wicket to a thunderous ovation but the tension soon became unbearable for cricket watchers, if not the man himself.

“I went 40 minutes without getting off the mark,‘’ Chappell said.

“I remember walking out to bat in a real fog because I had been dreaming about playing Test cricket for so long and suddenly there it was. Paul Sheahan was run out and I had just put my pads on.”

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Chappell on his way to a century in his first Test in December 1970.

After being so sedate early Chappell blossomed with 58 runs in an hour after tea … then the real drama unfolded.

He was 99 not out as the clock ticked to 5pm Perth time and ABC eastern states viewers controversially crossed to their 7pm news bulletin and missed the magic moment when Chappell raised three figures, returning when he was 104.

It was said the echoes of this poor decision rumbled all the way to the end of the decade when Kerry Packer would recall the snubbing of Chappell’s milestone moment as a sign the ABC was not fully committed to the game and why cricket needed his World Series Cricket crusade.

When Chappell raised his three figures, hundreds of fans invaded the ground to slap him on the back and walked all over the pitch before he led them, Pied Piper style, off the square.

“I can still remember that moment when the fans ran out and patted me on the back, but most of them just came out just to be out there and I thought I must move away from the pitch to ensure they don’t run all over it,’’ Chappell said.

Kerry Packer was watching Chappell’s innings closely.

Greg Chappell (right) and the man he replaced in the Test team, Terry Jenner.

As the innings reaches its 50th anniversary Chappell concedes his vision of it is both blurred and blissfully clear.

“It’s hard to come to grips with the fact it is 50 years ago because that is a lifetime ago and it feels like someone else did it. That’s the way I feel about my whole career. Yet some things I can remember as if they happened yesterday.

“The first thing was that because it was Perth‘s first Test match the whole city was alive and everyone was so excited.

“The other thing was we used to have rest days in Tests in those days and I went to Scarborough beach on the day off and fell asleep and got sunburnt. That innings did not make me a better player but it did buy me time. In some ways I had a lot of things in my favour that day because I had faced all the English bowlers in county cricket.‘’

One thing he has never forgotten was supreme commitment of Redpath, who has remained a Chappell’s favourite for half a century.

“I have always said we all would die for a baggy green cap but only a few who would kill for it and Redders was one of them. He got his runs when it was toughest.

“I can still see him facing John Snow that day and him ducking and weaving out of the way of bouncer after bouncer and glaring back down the pitch at Snow. It was just incredible Test cricket.

“Redders was just such a great competitor. I‘m not sure I played with any player who enjoyed a win more or who hated losing more. He was not really a drinker or a smoker yet I can’t recall a win where he did not have a drink or a smoke in his hand.’’

Chappell always had a private theory Redpath protected him from facing the rampaging Snow. The modest Redpath has never confirmed it, which only cements Chappell’s view that it was true and has made him even more fond of the old warrior.

After the innings Chappell gave one of cricket’s most memorable quotes – “I hope now people will see me as Greg Chappell rather than Ian’s brother of Victor’s grandson.’’

“It was a throwaway line but there was some feeling behind it. It was not that big a deal but I aware of the fact I was often seen as Ian’s brother.’’

Ian felt his brother’s century drove him to fresh heights as a Test batsman because “all of a sudden I had this little bloke I used to beat up in the backyard and he was scoring runs, so I better get my backside into gear.’’

But that’s another story …

The Courier-Mail