When Ian Chappell was one of Australia’s finest test captains and
batsmen, a big key to his success was his timing. But as a
cricket commentator, that timing has eluded him, as this story in today’s Bulletin magazine shows.

According to Chappell, “Australia has been comprehensively outplayed in
the Ashes series,” and he says that’s because of three simple factors:
“can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field.” Ouch – and wrong.

Chappell’s problem seems to be one of deadlines – his story looks very
much like it was written before Australia pulled off one of the
greatest draws in cricket history and when Chappell sat down to write
his attack he never believed the Australians could play as well as they
did to save the match.