Murray Ernest Chapple, who died at Hamilton on July 31, 1985, and 55, had already been appointed to manage the New Zealand team to England in 1986. A burly cricketer and able administrator, he possessed a sharp sense of humour and warm personality, and his death was an untimely blow to New Zealand cricket. Making his début for Canterbury when he was nineteen, as a right-hand batsman and left-arm swing bowler, he went on to play fourteen times for New Zealand between 1952-53 and 1956-66, first as an opening batsman and then lower in the order, scoring 497 test runs at an average of 19.11 with a top score of 76 against South Africa at Cape Town in 1953-54. After a season ( 1950-51) with Central Districts he forced his way into New Zealand's Test side by making an aggressive 165 for Canterbury against the touring South Africans at Christchurch in 1952-53, followed by 88 in the second innings. Of his fourteen Tests, eleven were in fact against South Africa, a country which he toured twice, the second time, in 1961-62, as vice-captain to John Reid. He was a member of the first New Zealand side to win a Test match, against West Indies at Auckland in 1955-56, and in his last Test match, against England at Christchurch in 1965-66, he was New Zealand's captain. Injury then precipitated his retirement, whereupon he became a New Zealand selector until 1970. He also managed the New Zealanders in West Indies in 1971-72 and in India and Pakistan in 1976-77. In first-class cricket he scored 5,344 runs (28.88) and hit four centuries. Switching from seam to orthodox left-arm spin, he also took 142 wickets, one of them in a Test match.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack