The underarm odour
From Cricinfo's 'All Today's yesterdays'
February 1 1981
Video
Click here to see a video of that delivery.
The Repercussions
From Wisden 1982
"Not surprisingly this prompted widespread charges of poor sportsmanship. The
Australian Cricket Board, "meeting" by telephone hook up. at once agreed that the playing conditions should be changed "to prohibit the use of underarm bowling in the remaining matches of the competition". They also decided that, as no existing rule had been infringed, the Melbourne result,however regrettably achieved, must stand."
"Mr P.L. Ridings, chairman of the Australian board, said his board 'deplored Greg Chappell's action' and had 'advised him of their strong feelings on the matter and of his responsibility as Australia's captain to uphold the spirit of the game at all times'. Chappell said himself it was something he would not do again. Even the Prime Ministers of the two countries had things to say,Australia's Mr Malcolm Fraser claiming that Chappell had 'made a serious mistake, contrary to the spirit of the game'. New Zealand's Mr Robert Muldoon was more outspoken, describing the underarm delivery as 'an act of cowardice'. It was appropriate, he said, that the Australian team should have been dressed in yellow, a reference to the coloured strip favoured by Australia in these one-day matches."
"Mr Bob Vance, chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council, described it as'the worst sporting action' he had ever seen. 'Victory at this cost', he said. 'was at the sacrifice of Australia's tremendously proud cricket heritage'. Sir Donald Bradman 'totally disapproved' of what had happened. Richie Benaud referred to a 'disgraceful happening . . . one of the worst things I have seen on a cricket field'. Harold Larwood, aged 77 and living in retirement in Sydney, said it was 'a bloody stupid thing to do', adding that 'no-one in my time would have done anything like that'. A Sydney radio station said that several callers had urged that Australia's ambassador to New Zealand be recalled as an expression of national shame. There were charges, too, that the substantial prize money was changing players' attitudes."
And Greg Chappell on the infamous incident. Extracted from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s1034248.htm
Greg Chappell: The underarm was on a Sunday, the 1st February, 1981 I seem to remember. The following Saturday, so the 7th February, was to be the start of the final Test match against India. We had another final to play in the one-day series on the Tuesday against New Zealand. If we won that, then we wouldn’t have to play another one on the Thursday. So the end of the season, long season, I was pretty well worn out physically and mentally. A number of our senior players, Dennis and Rod in particular, had niggles that they were carrying. We were starting to feel the pinch, I was certainly feeling the pinch. I’d been having meetings for at least two seasons, on a regular basis with Australian Cricket, who claimed they couldn’t do anything about conditions at the MCG, so they would take us to meetings with Victorian Cricket, who claimed that it was out of their control. So we had meetings with the Melbourne Cricket Club, who claimed that there wasn’t a problem anyway, that what did it matter, the wicket was the same for both teams, which missed the point completely. And the fact that we played at the MCG twice as often as anyone else meant that it wasn’t the same for all teams.
All of the things that were wrong with the programming, all of the things that were wrong with the playing conditions, all of the things that were a problem with the new system, was impacting much more on the Australian team than it was on anyone else. And nobody either seemed to care or could do anything about it, or claimed they could do anything about it. And on that day, there’d been an incident earlier in the day where a catch had been claimed in the outfield by Martin Snedden, and I have no doubt that he felt that he’d caught the ball. From where I was, I couldn’t tell, so I wasn’t going to go unless the umpires gave me out. The umpires decided not to give me out, so that was quite a controversy in the morning session. I think I’d made 90-odd or something, 94, 96 or something in our innings. It had been a particularly hot day, I’d bowled my 10 overs in the bowling innings as I always did. And it was a particularly tight match. Bruce Edgar, John Wright, but Bruce Edgar in particular, Bruce Edgar I think made it 100 for New Zealand on that day and had batted beautifully. And New Zealand probably should have won the game.
I brought Trevor on to bowl late in the game to bowl out the last overs which generally it was me who bowled in the last 10 overs, but because it was a tight game and I’d come in to bowl my first spell in the middle overs, and was bowling reasonably well, I decided to keep bowling out my 10 overs because I knew I had Trevor up my sleeve to bowl the last few overs.
The wicket was so low and slow and so uneven, that someone like Dennis Lillee was the worst bowler from our point of view, to bowl in those last overs, because he got normal bounce and came onto the bat. Blokes who were military medium, like myself and Trevor, and didn’t bounce very much, were much more difficult to get away. It was always intended that Trevor was going to bowl those last overs.
Trevor did such a good job in the last overs that he picked up three or four wickets that actually brought us back into the game. And he’d picked up at least one wicket in that last over.
At that stage, we’d fielded particularly poorly in that session as well, we’d mis-fielded quite a few balls, and in those last couple of overs, there’d been a number of mis-fields that had really got to me, and I wasn’t fit, I mean I was mentally wrung out, I was physically wrung out, and I was fed up with the whole system. Things that seemed to be just closing in on us, and I suppose in my own case I felt they were closing in on me, and it was a cry for help. I was sitting on the ground at deep mid-on, Brian McKechnie came in to bat, I’d never seen him before. He’d come over as a replacement player. All I knew about him was that he was a Rugby Union player, he’d represented New Zealand, he was an All Black Rugby player, he’s a big strapping boy. The fact that he was batting No. 11 probably suggested he wasn’t that good. But at that stage, I didn’t really care. I hadn’t thought about it before looking up and seeing him walk through the gate, and I thought, I’ve had a gutful of this, and this is what I think of it. And I walked up to Trevor and I said, How are you bowling your underarms? And he said, I don’t know. And I said, Well you’re just about to find out. And with that I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end and told him, who I’m reliably told, I mean when I told Trevor that he was bowling underarm, his eyes rolled back in his head. When I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end, his eyes rolled back in his head, and I’m reliably informed that when he told the umpire at square leg, the same thing happened. So they were all taken aback by it, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was legal. I had conformed with all the requirements of informing the umpires, who then informed the batsmen, and I wandered back to deep mid-on knowing that it wouldn’t be all that well received, but probably unaware of the furore that was just about to unleash. And at that moment, I couldn’t have cared less.
February 1 1981
A one-day final, and the opponents need six off the last ball just to tie. If you were an Australian, you'd back yourself to win, wouldn't you? Greg Chappell didn't. He was so scared of New Zealand's Brian McKechnie (one-day career: 54 runs in 14 matches) that he ordered his bowler - who just happened to be his brother, Trevor - to bowl the last ball underarm. It did the trick and Australia won the match. But they lost a lot of friends at the same time - the tactic caused much consternation and was quickly banned. Ian Chappell, brother of Trevor and Greg, was commentating at the time and said: "No Greg, you can't do that."
Video
Click here to see a video of that delivery.
The Repercussions
From Wisden 1982
"Not surprisingly this prompted widespread charges of poor sportsmanship. The
Australian Cricket Board, "meeting" by telephone hook up. at once agreed that the playing conditions should be changed "to prohibit the use of underarm bowling in the remaining matches of the competition". They also decided that, as no existing rule had been infringed, the Melbourne result,however regrettably achieved, must stand."
"Mr P.L. Ridings, chairman of the Australian board, said his board 'deplored Greg Chappell's action' and had 'advised him of their strong feelings on the matter and of his responsibility as Australia's captain to uphold the spirit of the game at all times'. Chappell said himself it was something he would not do again. Even the Prime Ministers of the two countries had things to say,Australia's Mr Malcolm Fraser claiming that Chappell had 'made a serious mistake, contrary to the spirit of the game'. New Zealand's Mr Robert Muldoon was more outspoken, describing the underarm delivery as 'an act of cowardice'. It was appropriate, he said, that the Australian team should have been dressed in yellow, a reference to the coloured strip favoured by Australia in these one-day matches."
"Mr Bob Vance, chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council, described it as'the worst sporting action' he had ever seen. 'Victory at this cost', he said. 'was at the sacrifice of Australia's tremendously proud cricket heritage'. Sir Donald Bradman 'totally disapproved' of what had happened. Richie Benaud referred to a 'disgraceful happening . . . one of the worst things I have seen on a cricket field'. Harold Larwood, aged 77 and living in retirement in Sydney, said it was 'a bloody stupid thing to do', adding that 'no-one in my time would have done anything like that'. A Sydney radio station said that several callers had urged that Australia's ambassador to New Zealand be recalled as an expression of national shame. There were charges, too, that the substantial prize money was changing players' attitudes."
And Greg Chappell on the infamous incident. Extracted from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s1034248.htm
Greg Chappell: The underarm was on a Sunday, the 1st February, 1981 I seem to remember. The following Saturday, so the 7th February, was to be the start of the final Test match against India. We had another final to play in the one-day series on the Tuesday against New Zealand. If we won that, then we wouldn’t have to play another one on the Thursday. So the end of the season, long season, I was pretty well worn out physically and mentally. A number of our senior players, Dennis and Rod in particular, had niggles that they were carrying. We were starting to feel the pinch, I was certainly feeling the pinch. I’d been having meetings for at least two seasons, on a regular basis with Australian Cricket, who claimed they couldn’t do anything about conditions at the MCG, so they would take us to meetings with Victorian Cricket, who claimed that it was out of their control. So we had meetings with the Melbourne Cricket Club, who claimed that there wasn’t a problem anyway, that what did it matter, the wicket was the same for both teams, which missed the point completely. And the fact that we played at the MCG twice as often as anyone else meant that it wasn’t the same for all teams.
All of the things that were wrong with the programming, all of the things that were wrong with the playing conditions, all of the things that were a problem with the new system, was impacting much more on the Australian team than it was on anyone else. And nobody either seemed to care or could do anything about it, or claimed they could do anything about it. And on that day, there’d been an incident earlier in the day where a catch had been claimed in the outfield by Martin Snedden, and I have no doubt that he felt that he’d caught the ball. From where I was, I couldn’t tell, so I wasn’t going to go unless the umpires gave me out. The umpires decided not to give me out, so that was quite a controversy in the morning session. I think I’d made 90-odd or something, 94, 96 or something in our innings. It had been a particularly hot day, I’d bowled my 10 overs in the bowling innings as I always did. And it was a particularly tight match. Bruce Edgar, John Wright, but Bruce Edgar in particular, Bruce Edgar I think made it 100 for New Zealand on that day and had batted beautifully. And New Zealand probably should have won the game.
I brought Trevor on to bowl late in the game to bowl out the last overs which generally it was me who bowled in the last 10 overs, but because it was a tight game and I’d come in to bowl my first spell in the middle overs, and was bowling reasonably well, I decided to keep bowling out my 10 overs because I knew I had Trevor up my sleeve to bowl the last few overs.
The wicket was so low and slow and so uneven, that someone like Dennis Lillee was the worst bowler from our point of view, to bowl in those last overs, because he got normal bounce and came onto the bat. Blokes who were military medium, like myself and Trevor, and didn’t bounce very much, were much more difficult to get away. It was always intended that Trevor was going to bowl those last overs.
Trevor did such a good job in the last overs that he picked up three or four wickets that actually brought us back into the game. And he’d picked up at least one wicket in that last over.
At that stage, we’d fielded particularly poorly in that session as well, we’d mis-fielded quite a few balls, and in those last couple of overs, there’d been a number of mis-fields that had really got to me, and I wasn’t fit, I mean I was mentally wrung out, I was physically wrung out, and I was fed up with the whole system. Things that seemed to be just closing in on us, and I suppose in my own case I felt they were closing in on me, and it was a cry for help. I was sitting on the ground at deep mid-on, Brian McKechnie came in to bat, I’d never seen him before. He’d come over as a replacement player. All I knew about him was that he was a Rugby Union player, he’d represented New Zealand, he was an All Black Rugby player, he’s a big strapping boy. The fact that he was batting No. 11 probably suggested he wasn’t that good. But at that stage, I didn’t really care. I hadn’t thought about it before looking up and seeing him walk through the gate, and I thought, I’ve had a gutful of this, and this is what I think of it. And I walked up to Trevor and I said, How are you bowling your underarms? And he said, I don’t know. And I said, Well you’re just about to find out. And with that I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end and told him, who I’m reliably told, I mean when I told Trevor that he was bowling underarm, his eyes rolled back in his head. When I turned to the umpire at the bowler’s end, his eyes rolled back in his head, and I’m reliably informed that when he told the umpire at square leg, the same thing happened. So they were all taken aback by it, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was legal. I had conformed with all the requirements of informing the umpires, who then informed the batsmen, and I wandered back to deep mid-on knowing that it wouldn’t be all that well received, but probably unaware of the furore that was just about to unleash. And at that moment, I couldn’t have cared less.
posted by Sriram Veera at 7:50 PM
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