Ian Chappell at the end of a nineteen-Test career. Chappell was given weekly batting lessons from the age of five, as were younger brothers Greg and Trevor, who both also went on to play for Australia. Chappell grew up in the beachside suburb of Glenelg and attended the local St Leonard's Primary School where he played his first competitive match at the age of seven. He was later selected for the South Australian state schoolboys team. He then enrolled at Prince Alfred College, a private secondary school noted for producing many Test cricketers, including the Australian captains Joe Darling and Clem Hill.
Ian Chappell the 1993 Ashes series. Channel Nine suspended him on both occasions. Chappell began working as a commentator for Channel Nine's cricket coverage in the 1980–81 season, a position he retains until the network lost the Australian home cricket rights to Channel 7 in April 2018. Despite losing the Cricket rights, Chappell signed a lifetime deal with Nine alongside the now-retired Bill Lawry. The greatest controversy of his first season was the Underarm Incident, which involved his two younger brothers in an ODI played between Australia and New Zealand at the MCG. Chappell showed no fraternal bias and was vehement in