Chappell, Zac – Young cricketer tried the Broad route

Zac Chappell (b1996)

Grantham-born Zak Chappell was part of Leicestershire Cricket Club’s Academy and has signed a two-year contract at Grace Road in 2014.

He is a tall, quick seamer who also has the ability to strike the ball very cleanly. Chappell received an excellent cricketing education at Stamford School, where he worked alongside former Kent and England seamer Dean Headley.

Chappell was prolific with bat and ball during his time at Stamford Town CC and played for Market Harborough CC in 2014, where he topped the club’s bowling averages after taking a seven-for in his first game.

Chappell has also represented Huntingdonshire at squash and enjoys playing tennis, so he is a sporting all-rounder in every sense.

He made his Twenty20 debut for Leicestershire against Northamptonshire in July 2015

In September that year, he scored 96 from 122 balls against Derbyshire, the highest ever innings by a Leicestershire number 10, before Mark Footitt yorked him to complete career-best figures of seven for 71.

His outstanding innings led a recovery that took Leicestershire from 131-7 to 329 all out with the last two wickets adding 175.

He then followed the route trod by Stuart Broad a decade or so earlier when he left Leicestershire for Nottinghamshire at the end of 2018 with the intention of pursuing his England ambitions.

Chappell has yet to prove that he possessed Broad’s resilience with only 14 first-class matches (39 across all competitions) and a farewell season in which he had taken 16 wickets at low cost but in only four first-class games.

Zak Chappell moved to Derbyshire ahead of the 2023 season looking to reestablish himself after four seasons on the fringes at Nottinghamshire, with head coach Mickey Arthur describing the move as “an easy sell”, adding: “I want a guy who is coming here and wants to use us to play for England.” His returns in red-ball cricket were solid rather than spectacular, but an impressive Blast – 26 wickets at 18.03 – saw him drafted in by Oval Invincibles on their way to a maiden men’s Hundred