Greg Chappell has always been one to lead from the front in the pursuit of change.
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Be it on the pitch as one of the biggest names to join the revolutionary World Series Cricket, or in his four decades of involvement with youth charities.
It's why the man who captained Australia in 48 Tests is proud that his appointment as an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia stands for far more than just his 7110 runs and 24 centuries.
"It's a great honour," Chappell told AAP.
"I didn't play cricket for the awards and honours that come from it, and I haven't lived my life for that reason either.
"But it's always an honour, and it helps what we're trying to do with the Chappell Foundation to raise awareness for how big of a problem youth homelessness is."
On the field Chappell was a stand out between 1970 and 1985 where ball dominated bat.
His average of 53.86 was among the highest in the world for that time, and is still the fifth-best by any Australian.
He is one of just five players to score a century in his first and last Tests, and forms part of one of Australia's greatest sporting families.
But it's in World Series Cricket that Chappell is proudest of his impact.
The breakaway competition changed the game, and in the eyes of Chappell, moved all sport into a modern era where professionalism was possible.
"The two years of World Series Cricket were probably the most exciting two years of my cricket life," Chappell said.
"It was a great honour to be to be part of and to be the generation that stood up and said, 'things are going to change'.
"I've talked to a lot of other sportsmen who played in that era and they reckon it helped them too because it changed the way sport was televised."
Chappell retired in 1984 and has since been a Test selector, national talent manager commentator and India's coach.
But his passion throughout has remained youth in need, after becoming deeply involved on the birth of his own children and seeing friends lose theirs.
He was among a group to help raise funds to rebuild the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane during the 1980s and remains a patron for the LBW (Learning for a Better World) Trust.
"The Children's Hospital was a no-brainer," Chappell said.
"The most challenging day of every year was the day in December we used to go into the oncology ward and have a Christmas party for the kids.
"And most of those kids weren't going to see Christmas.
"It was a very humbling experience to sit down there with the parents of those kids and just talk to them about what they've been through.
"I certainly felt if there's something you can do that I should just do it."
More recently, he started the Chappell Foundation aimed at addressing the 40,000 youth who find themselves homeless.
"In a country of our wealth, I just don't think that's acceptable," he said.
Australian Associated Press