Ian Chappell: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Ian Chappell

What he said:

“Not only is it important to keep the contest between bat and ball fair, it also pays to remember kids are great mimics.”

Ian Chappell writes that bowlers with dubious bowling actions should be called early and their actions rectified before they go on to become successes on the domestic and international playing fields. The attendant adverse publicity casts aspersions on the game and its proponents.

Chappell said:

“…because kids are mimics and will copy the heroes of the day, and a sure way to eradicate dodgy actions is stop offenders before they reach the first-class arena.”

The player-turned-commentator adds:

“…the one area of the chucking issue the ICC hasn’t addressed is the law as it applies to on-field immediacy. How come a batsman is protected when a bowler oversteps the front line by a millimetre but he isn’t when a trundler suddenly pelts one after bowling the bulk of his deliveries?

Batsmen need immediate protection in this case rather than getting a letter from the ICC six months later apologising because they have discovered the delivery that uprooted off stump was illegal.”

What Chappell really meant:

“Kids are impressionable and bound to imitate their heroes. If they (heroes) have feet of clay, kids have no firm ground to fall back on for their mimicked actions. Besides, the mentality becomes one of ‘ If they (apparently) can get away with it, why can’t I?'”

What he definitely didn’t:

“I could teach apes to bowl and they’d bowl every ball cleanly.”