Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has decided to quit his 45-year-old commentary career.
Ian Chappell Retires From Commentary Career
He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation.
“I remember the day when I knew I’d had enough of playing cricket. I looked at the clock and it was five past 11 on a day of play and I thought, ‘S**t, if you’re clock-watching at that time, I have to go’,” said Chappell, as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
“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.
Then I read what Rabbits [legendary rugby league commentator Ray Warren] said with retirement and it really struck home when I read the bit where he said, ‘you’re always one sentence closer to making a mistake,” he added.
Since his retirement in 1980, he has pursued a high-profile career as a sports journalist and cricket commentator, predominantly with Channel Nine
“Kerry [Packer, the media mogul who owned Channel Nine] wanted to sack me a couple of times. He used to get the s***s about one-day cricket, because that was his baby.
And I might have said something about one-day cricket. With Kerry it was just like a storm – you’d let it blow over till the next one came,” said Chappell.
“It’s up to other people to decide what they think of me and some will think I’ve been all right. Some will think I’ve been a pr**k. That doesn’t bother me one bit,” he added.
Chappell was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986, the FICA Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2003. On 9 July 2009, Ian Chappell was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
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