Greg Chappell walk, while his maternal grandfather was the famous all-round sportsman Vic Richardson, who had captained Australia in Test cricket. Elder brother Ian and younger brother Trevor also played for Australia, and Greg closely followed in Ian's footsteps to the top. Given weekly lessons by coach Lynn Fuller, the brothers fought out fierce backyard cricket matches, with no holds barred. The fraternal relationship between Ian and Greg became legendary in Australian cricketing history for volatile verbal slanging matches, even during hard fought Test matches, which had their genesis in the family backyard. Chappell attended St Leonards primary school, where he played
Greg Chappell against India. Chappell was in good form throughout the summer, but managed only two international centuries. The first came at Sydney in an ODI against New Zealand, when Chappell set a then record Australian score of 138*. Early in the new year, on the same ground, he played his first Test against India. Despite suffering a bad stomach upset, Chappell hit 204, an innings described by "Wisden" as "masterly". However, this season is best remembered for the triangular ODI series, specifically the third of the best of five finals series, played in Melbourne on 1 February 1981 (See #Underarm controversy,