He won the Sheffield Shield with New South Wales twice, and scored a century for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup.
His career was overshadowed, however, by an incident in 1981 in which he bowled an underarm delivery to New Zealand cricketer Brian McKechnie to prevent the batsman from hitting a six.
[1] Chappell grew up playing cricket in the backyard with his brothers, and like them was coached by Lynn Foster and attended Prince Alfred College.
Chappell debuted for South Australia in the 1972–73 season, replacing Ken Cunningham who had to drop out for business reasons.
It was a highly successful season for Chappell, who found his medium pace bowling effective on English wickets.
[11][12] Over the 1975–76 Australian summer Chappell toured South Africa as part of DH Robins XI, a special invitational side managed by Richie Benaud.
[15] Chappell then received an offer to play for the Scarborough Cricket Club in Perth and moved to Western Australia.
And a few days later [Austin] Robinson, Dennis' manager, rang and said, "Do you want to join World Series Cricket" and I said, "Yeah, where do I sign?
""[2] Chappell played ten games for WSC Australia in the Country Cup in 1977–78, scoring 339 runs, more than any other Australian batsman, although his average was only 26.
[22] "Trevor Chappell batted exceptionally well and he did not deserve the rubbishing the crowd gave him", said Australian captain Ross Edwards.
[29][30] In the West Indies Chappell was picked in the first four of the Supertests, but was unable to reprise his Australian form in the Caribbean, his highest score in the Test matches and One Day Internationals being 28.
[31] When World Series Cricket ended in 1979, Chappell moved to Sydney and started playing for the club Gordon.
[32] This ensured his selection in the New South Wales side for the first Sheffield Shield match that summer, meaning Chappell had now played for three states.
[40] In April 1980 one Sydney journalist suggested "he must be close to winning the remaining batting place" in the Australian squad to tour England in 1980.
Despite his fielding brilliance, he is not a front line bowler and can hardly lay claim to first call on a vacant position as a Test middle order batsman", suggesting Graham Yallop, Peter Toohey or David Boon would be better.
However Rod Marsh suggested Chappell and/or Graeme Beard could be selected on the 1981 Ashes as a specialist one day player, saying "I can't speak too highly for his fielding.
He wrote "if another batsman is needed for any reason, then Trevor Chappell would be my selection because he can bat anywhere in the order and is the best cover field in Australia.
Australia scored 235 batting first; Trevor Chappell bowled the last over in which he dismissed Richard Hadlee and Ian Smith (His figures would be 2-57).
A visibly agitated McKechnie could do little but block the ball to avoid being dismissed, then throwing his bat away in disgust, and so Australia won the game.
(The other main surprise was the selection of Ray Bright over Bruce Yardley and Jim Higgs, who had both played test cricket that summer.
)[71][3] The Age reported Trevor Chappell "must be the first Australian cricketer to have won a major tour berth on the strength of his brilliant fielding.
[75] Brian Mossop of the Sydney Morning Herald said Chappell "came to Australia assured of a place in the one day internationals but needing to show great fortitutde to win a test berth.
"[77] As the tour went on, Chappell's form was not particularly good but Kent's was worse (he had a highest score of 28), and it was felt the other batsman, Dirk Wellham, was too inexperienced.
[78][79] Peter McFarline of The Age wrote "although he is a courageous player he is not really the man for the job but he will be there because the only other contender... Kent has failed to come to terms with English conditions.
"[3] Chappell's father Martin, in England at the time, said "It's a proud moment for me... Now that Trevor's got there I hope he makes a good fist for it.
[100] He recovered, and went on to deliver a number of excellent performances for NSW, including 92 against South Australia,[101] 61 against England,[102] 89 against New Zealand in a one-day game[103] and 132 against Queensland.
[105] The highlight of Chappell's summer came during the Sheffield Shield final, where New South Wales played Western Australia in Perth.
His ODI record was 16 games, 90 runs at 10 and 15 wickets at 29.6 but Chappell's experience in England was thought to have given him the edge over his main rival, Ken MacLeay.
This is the biggest thrill apart from my 1981 Test selection in England and helping bring back the Sheffield Shield to NSW last year.
Reviewing the tour Peter Mcfarline wrote Chappell "helped the side enormously with a century against India but lack of class both as a batsman and a bowler is exposed at this level.