Glancing up to the players’ balcony at the Emirates Durham ICG this week and two familiar faces immediately catch the attention of any cricket lover.
While Graeme Hick and Greg Chappell played in different eras on each side of the Ashes divide, both are now working in tandem to try and develop young Australian talent.
Former Worcestershire and England batsmen Hick is one of Australia’s coaches while Chappell is his boss, national talent manager in the land Down Under.
During a break in play as England’s youngsters battled against their Australian Under-19 counterparts at the Emirates Durham ICG, Chappell chatted about all things cricket, from Fred Trueman to fast bowling.
“The last time I came here to England was in the 1990s to commentate, but the last time I played was 1980 in the Centenary test at Lord’s. I’ve kept in touch with a few old friends in England and I see them whenever I can, such as Charlie Carter, who kept wicket at Somerset and Mike Brearley and Mike Selvey, who I catch up with as regularly as I can.
“As for the North-east, I played one game at Jesmond in the 1980s but this would have been a farmer’s field back then! What an incredible transformation.”
This week’s ‘Ashes’ clash is the first Under-19 test between cricket’s oldest rivals on these shores since 1999, but Chappell is adamant there will be plenty more in the future.
“We are definitely going to make these Under-19 fixtures a much more regular event. I think we were all guilty of dropping the ball to an extent with regard to cricket at this level for a number of years. You have to expose young cricketers to the sort of challenges which they will face as they go through the levels, so the opportunity to play international cricket, in different conditions, with different balls and learning how to play on tour, that is something which will be a more regular feature.
“We also want to help the youngsters off the pitch as well, to develop their education in the understanding that we have a duty to develop the whole of their persona. Education is so important. A one-dimensional existence is not ideal to developing talent to its fullest. We want to see as rounded an individual as possible. To that end, we will have a couple of series a year. We have been to India and Sri Lanka recently and the World Cup is every two years, another great opportunity to help the players develop their skills in different environments. Coming to England is a vital part of that.”
It was all so different back in Chappell’s teenage years. “I travelled to Somerset when I was a kid, just 19. It was 1968 and that was the first time the Australian touring side flew back to Australia after the Ashes. They got the boat over, taking six weeks, but flew back.
“I wasn’t involved in the test team, but that same year I was approached by Somerset to play. It was a shock to me that someone would pay for me to travel half way round the world to do what I loved, play cricket. It was an amazing life experience. That grounding helped me so much. I had made a couple of inter-state flights, but the first time I got on a proper aeroplane was when I went from Adelaide to Perth, Perth to Bombay and then to London, via Amsterdam. It was about 48 hours from bed to bed!
“I got into London and was met at the airport and driven to Taunton. By the time I get there I didn’t know if I was up or down. Unsurprisingly, I finished up with an illness which knocked me flat for a few days, laid low with a chest infection.
“I got a thousand runs that first season, but I batted 35 times. If you had two arms and two legs you should have made 1,000. I had mixed success. I faced uncovered wickets for the first time against bowlers who knew how to bowl on that surface. I learnt about a few other things, other than cricket, especially when I met the likes of Fred Trueman. Fred was a natural comic, just a very funny man and I’m so pleased I managed to play against him before the end of his career.
“My first season, they put me up at the Crown and Sceptre pub in Taunton, so at night I had nothing else to do other than go for a drink. An important part of my learning experience and managing myself was working out that I could have a couple of beers, but not every night. These youngsters are going to have to find that out – managing themselves – as well.”
Chappell, who played 87 tests between 1970-84, averaging nearly 54, admits the talent pool in Australia is vast.
“The challenge is managing that talent through the system,” he said. “We have a broad level of experience and some a lot more recent than mine, such as Graeme Hick and Troy Cooley, who both do fantastic jobs.
“The last time we played an Under-19 test in England was 1999 when Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson both played. Ultimately, the aim is to get as many through to the test side as possible. History tells you not many of these guys will make it, but some will. This is an important part for those who will and for the others it is a great life experience and they will end up in county cricket, state cricket, or club cricket. Some will become doctors or brain surgeons. But for the two or three that do come out of this group and make it to the top level, this experience will be invaluable.”