ian chappell on aus story, page-10

1. IAN CHAPPELL'S BIG STATEMENT

Australian Story executive producer Deb Fleming has responded to a Crikey query advising that the Ian Chappell forum received 1200 posts last night despite four separate crashes thanks to the avalanche of interest.

This is one of the biggest responses they've ever had and 95 per cent of the posters were pro Chappell's stance on taking a more compassionate approach to refugees.

Check out the forum here: http://www2b.abc.net.au/austory/forum/

Clearly, we're not all racist rednecks.

Whilst Crikey enjoyed seeing Chappell stick his neck out, a subscriber has a theory as to why John Howard will ignore him like everyone else on this issue:

"Firstly, Ian and his family openly disliked the Don - right up there with dacking the queen, in JH's eyes. Secondly, he is not from NSW. However, if John Howard thinks Ian Chappell will go away, he is dead wrong."

CRIKEY: It will be interesting to see if any of the usual Howard attack dogs in Bolt, Akerman and Blair take it upon themselves to rip into a cricketing icon.

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