Australian cricket great Greg Chappell has called on the public to help locate his missing baggy green playing cap after it went missing from a storage facility in Brisbane in circumstances that have left him mystified.
Chappell, 76, was preparing a move to Adelaide recently when he noticed the cap had disappeared.
‘We [family] had stuff in storage for about 10 years or so, and when we moved back to Adelaide we brought everything out of storage and I was expecting to find that baggy green cap, but it didn’t appear,’ Chappell told the Cricket Et Al podcast.
‘I don’t know what happened to it. I wouldn’t like to cast aspersions, but it went into storage, but it doesn’t seem to have come out.
‘I don’t surround myself with my cricket memorabilia … but I am a little bit disappointed.’
Chappell added he was ‘anything but a hoarder’ but admitted the baggy green has sentimental value in addition to the high price it would attract if he sold it.
Shane Warne’s baggy green fetched a stunning $1million at auction in 2020, with Don Bradman’s cap going for $450,000 that year.
A schoolboy prodigy in South Australia, Chappell made his Test debut in 1970 versus England – where he scored a century at the WACA in Perth – and quickly developed a reputation as a classy top order-batsman.
He was appointed Australian captain in 1975 and then signed on for the breakaway World Series Cricket competition, funded by Kerry Packer.
Australian cricket great Greg Chappell has called on the public to help locate his missing baggy green after it went missing from a storage facility in Brisbane
Chappell made his Test debut in 1970 versus England and quickly developed a reputation as a classy top order-batsman
After retiring in 1984, Chappell turned his attention to coaching, working as an Australian selector across two stints as well as a colourful spell in charge of India
Chappell is also infamously known for his key role in the underarm bowling incident of 1981, where Greg ordered his younger brother Trevor to roll a ball on the ground to ensure Australia couldn’t lose a one-day international match against New Zealand at the MCG.
While within the laws of the game at the time, Chappell was widely condemned for his unsportsmanlike conduct.
Commentating for Channel Nine at the time, former Australian captain Richie Benaud described the act as ‘disgraceful’ and also said it was ‘one of the worst things I have ever seen on a cricket field.’
Malcolm Fraser, Australia’s then Prime Minister, labelled the act ‘contrary to all the traditions of the game.’
After retiring in 1984, Chappell turned his attention to coaching, working as an Australian selector across two stints as well as a colourful spell in charge of India.
He also coached South Australia domestically.
In 2002, Chappell was inducted to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
