SYDNEY, Nov 27: Former Australian captain Ian Chappell has re-ignited the World Series Cricket row 25 years on by blaming the breakaway on the late Sir Donald Bradman.

Chappell said this in an interview for an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary screened Wednesday.

He was one of 55 players from across the Test playing nations signed by Kerry Packer to take part in his rebel series, which ran from 1977 to 1979.

But Chappell has now said he believes the breakaway could have been avoided were it not for Bradman.

Cricket’s greatest ever batsman, Bradman at one stage chaired the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) although he was no longer in that role when the Packer row erupted.

“Bradman to me has as much to do with the starting of World Series Cricket as anybody because I got the feeling he treated the board’s money as though it was almost his own money,” Chappell said.