The Australian Feud ( Chappell - Waugh )

 The long running Chappell-Waugh feud

20 years ago, Steve Waugh brought the curtains down on his international career after making his debut in 1985. He left the stage with a characteristic gritty knock of 80 that denied India a historic series win over Australia in Australia. Naturally, tributes poured in from everywhere and deservedly so. Waugh had won two World Cups, one of them as a captain and was at the helm of Australian cricket during their remarkable 16 Test long winning streak. But one man wasn't moved. That was Ian Chappell.

Chappell, a former Australian captain and a legend in his own right, never warmed up to the halo around Steve Waugh. And just like his feelings about everyone, he hardly ever kept it to himself when it came to Waugh. He, in fact, very publicly labelled him 'selfish'. During a commentary stint with Ian Healy, when Chappell was criticising Waugh on air and was told by Healy that he might be getting a bit too harsh on Waugh, he said, "I didn’t like selfish cricketers when I played, so why would I like them now that I am a commentator?"

Back in the day when Steve Waugh used to be a proper all-rounder (unlike his later years where he stopped bowling), Tony Greig said on air, ‘This bloke has to be the best all-rounder in the world.’ Chappell's reply - ‘Tony, he’s not even the best all-rounder in his own family.’ Like many, Ian Chappell was a big admirer of Mark Waugh, although he did appreciate Steve Waugh's mental application, as he writes in his book. But what he thought of Steve Waugh's batting is best summed up by what he said to a guy who told him he was going to watch Waugh's last Test.

Chappell asked him, ‘Have you seen him bat before?’ The person replied in affirmative. To that, Chappell said, ‘Why are you bothering? If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.’

What peeved Chappell about Waugh most was his announcement of retiring after the 2003-04 India series. Chappell later wrote, "If you want an example of his selfishness, it was his decision to announce that he was going to retire before the season started, so he could have a grand tour the last season. I thought it was a decision that was ill-judged. It wasn’t going to do his team any good and it led to what I thought was a disgraceful performance in the first Test, when Damien Martyn got run out." Chappell was on-air during the mix-up in which a well settled Martyn pretty much sacrificed his wicket for his captain who had just arrived at the crease.

When the 2004–05 edition of Wisden Australia hailed Steve Waugh as the most ‘influential Australian cricketer since Don Bradman’ Chappell called it 'nonsense'.

After his career was over, Waugh addressed the frostiness in the relationship of the two men in his autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone. He wrote, "To say Chappell’s criticism irked was an understatement, though I knew that, like anyone, he was entitled to an opinion. I don’t mind the fact that he criticised me — in fact, I would rather some one make a judgement than not — but I have always felt that a critic must either be constructive or base his comments on fact. I couldn’t help but think about the reasons he was so down on me. It might have been that I praised the work of Bob Simpson, who was his sworn enemy or that I didn’t spend hours in the bar drinking and regurgitating old cricket stories. 

Or perhaps he wasn’t keen on the coincidence of me being, like him, the older brother and combative in nature. Or maybe he didn’t like the fact that I refrained from playing the ‘macho’ hook shot.”

He concluded by saying, "Whatever it was, his was a personal attack, which came from a guy I didn’t know and who certainly didn’t know me. It was something I had to live with, and when I realized he was never going to cut me much slack, I decided that anything he said was positive would be a bonus and the rest just cast aside.”

One can only wonder what led to Chappell becoming such a strong critic of Steve Waugh. It's easy to see that Chappell didn't think of him as the tactical genius that a lot of people thought of him due to his success as a leader. He even explains those reasons but still, for a former player to be strongly opinionated about a player who was good enough to wear the Baggy Green 168 times seems strange.

I wonder if it had to do with Chappell's detestation of authority and hero worshipping of popular sportpeople (which comes across clearly in his attitude towards Bradman, another man whose halo didn't impress Chappelli). Anyone who has heard or read Chappell would agree that he is a super sharp cricketing brain and his close to 60 year long association with the game makes him one of the best commentators of cricket. Would he be so off in his character judgment, especially of a cricketer who went on to become a captain? And even if he isn't off, how right or wrong is it to take digs at a man who like him was building a career for himself and then leading the side in not so easy circumstances. He even reserved a chapter on Waugh in his book Chappelli Speaks Out. 

As for Waugh, Chappell isn't the only one who labelled him 'selfish' publicly. Warne, a favorite of Chappell, did that too. Whatever it maybe, the longevity of the feud is astonishing. Despite being two great captains of the Australian team, there doesn't exist any picture of the two men together except the ones clicked where Chappell was the presenter and Waugh was the Australian captain.