Australian cricket greats rally around Test legend Greg Chappell as star faces financial hardship: ‘We’re not living in luxury’

Teammates of former Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell have rallied behind the Test legend to raise money for his retirement.

Chappell, that one Go Fund Me page founded in his name, recently had a testimonial lunch at the MCG, which was attended by some of the biggest names in the sport.

Both Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee had similar fundraising testimonials after their playing careers were over, raising significant funds for their future – but Chappell received none.

Chappell, who rents out his home, said News Corp that he is not desperate.

“I’m not on my bones,” Chappell said.

‘I certainly don’t want it to sound like we’re in a difficult situation, because we’re not – but we don’t live in luxury either.

Chappell (pictured after winning the 1981 World Series Cup) says he’s not in a desperate situation, but he’s not living in luxury either

“I think most people assume that because we played cricket we all live in luxury. While I’m certainly not crying poor, we’re not reaping the benefits that today’s players are.”

Two of the cricket legend’s friends, Peter Maloney and David Evans, explained that Chappell’s foundation has raised millions for youth homelessness charities, but the man himself is doing it harder than he should.

‘Greg is a very proud man. He does it harder than he says,” Maloney said.

“The Chappell Foundation is run by Darshak Mehta and 100 percent of the money raised is distributed. They divide it annually so that at the end of each year they don’t leave any money and start over.

‘If you submit your name to a foundation, you have the right to get some money from it. But Greg didn’t take a dime out of it, even though he could have.

“I think that was the irony that he was the face of it and showed up at every function and raised all this money when he didn’t have much himself.

“Put it this way, we’ll probably get about $250,000 out of it, and it will improve its final years significantly.”

The Go Fund Me page, which has currently raised over $72,000, was organized as an easy payment facility for the testimonial lunch.

The former Aussie Test captain’s Go Fund Me page has already raised more than $72,000

“Normally at lunch we have a property card and you have eftpos machines. We didn’t have time to set one up, or at least for one event, which would have been quite taxing,” Maloney said.

“The quickest way to do this was a Go Fund Me page.”

Chappell hopes Australian cricket learns from his situation to take better care of players from the past who did not earn the same money as today’s stars.

“It’s just my friends realizing we weren’t getting much and just to make sure Judy and I were comfortable in retirement,” Chappell said.

‘To be honest, there are others from our era who are in more dire circumstances who could use help and I don’t think the game has done enough for players from that era. Especially in relation to the comparison with today’s time.

“I believe that the players who set the stage for what’s happening today should probably be recognized for the role they played in getting the game to where it is today.”

Chappell played 87 Test matches and captained Australia 48 times.

He retired from the sport in 1984 as the highest run-getter in Australian Test history (7,110), beating Sir Donald Bradman’s previous record (6,996).