INTERVIEW: Chappell on new contract, life at Derbyshire and ambitions…

Derbyshire fast bowler, Zak Chappell, says staying fit and playing consistently has been key in him becoming a leader of Derbyshire’s attack and the quick believes the future is bright for the current squad. 

Chappell, 29, recently signed a contract extension with Derbyshire, keeping him at the Club until the end of the 2028 season. He initially joined from Nottinghamshire, where he had endured an injury-hit time at Trent Bridge, which culminated with loan spells away from the Midlands.

However, since making the move down the A52, Chappell has become a first team regular in Mickey Arthur’s squad across all formats, claiming 170 all format wickets and featuring in all 14 Rothesay County Championship games last season.

Having established himself as a regular name on the teamsheet, Chappell hopes his fitness woes are behind him as he looks forward to the next three seasons with Derbyshire, where he says he has been able to take more responsibility for his conditioning.

“First and foremost, I wanted to be part of a Club which is moving in the right direction and one where I was going to play games and help Derbyshire to win,” he said.

“Staying on the park is important to me, it’s something I struggled with for a number of years, but I’ve been able to do that over the last three seasons and touch wood it continues.

“In the early years of my career, I probably let people tell me how I should stay fit and shifted the responsibility. Since I’ve been at Derbyshire, I’ve taken ownership of that and had the mindset that this is down to me, it’s my career and we just tweaked a few things. There are no guarantees, but it’s been nice to play as much as I have and make an impact. ”

The former Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire bowler has has enjoyed a number of highlights since joining Derbyshire, including breaking the Club record for T20 wickets in a single season (26), claiming three first-class five-wicket hauls, winning The Hundred and picking us his maiden T20 five-fer, enroute to claiming the inaugural Global Super League trophy with Rangpur Riders.

When reflecting on his time with Derbyshire so far, Chappell says he’s grown a lot as a player and believes the current crop of players are primed to challenge for silverware in the coming years.

“I had a lot of learning to do [when I joined Derbyshire] and I still do,” he added.

“Due to my injuries, I didn’t play a huge amount of cricket coming into 26/27 years old, so I was a little bit stunted in my growth in that regard.

“But I’ve had some great bowlers to learn from here, Blair Tickner was fantastic on the pitch and in the dressing room. Ben Aitchison has been like a new signing, he’s an unbelievably skilful bowler and showed what he can do towards the back end of last season.

“I feel like we are an attack which is coming of age now, we have a lot of players in the primes of their careers and that can only be a positive for us moving forward.”

With the winter training programme underway, and several Derbyshire players getting gametime overseas, Chappell says things are already shaping up nicely for the new season and praised captain Wayne Madsen for the attitude he approaches the game with.

“I feel good, I feel really strong and I put on a good bit of size during October, because I normally lose a lot of muscle mass during the season.

“We’ve started working on our skills too, we’re going to Loughborough once a week to work on basic skills, which will become more intricate as we get closer to the new season.

“It’s really valuable time in the gym and in the nets, the goal is always to improve but I like to focus on the process of getting better as cricketers and the outcome will look after itself.

“There will always be games where you have tricky situations, but I was really proud of how we dealt with those days last summer. We showed a lot of fight, which was really down to Wayne’s [Madsen] mindset and a group of players who want to win more than ever.

“We are improving all the time as a team and things are only going to get better for us if we keep working hard.”

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