- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the underarm incident that created perhaps the biggest cricket controversy since the Bodyline series of 1932-33.
Talk of that one-dayer between Australia and New Zealand on the MCG of 1981 and you remember Trevor Chappell the reluctant executioner, Greg Chappell the ruthless executive and Brian McKechnie the disgruntled victim.
But the man who was on the field all 100 overs, fielding and batting, is forgotten. He is the New Zealand left-hand opening batsman Bruce Edgar, now settled in Sydney.
I had the good fortune to discuss this event with him recently. This is from the horse’s mouth!
“I am amused when people ask me whether I played in that match”, he recalls. “No one seems to remember that I had carried the bat scoring 102 not out and was at the bowler’s end when the idea of bowling the underarm was conceived, discussed and executed.”
Let’s revisit the thriller with a twist in the tail. It was the third final in a series of four. New Zealand had won the first in Sydney by 78 runs but lost the second in Melbourne by seven wickets. The series was locked one-all with two matches to go.
Now to the third final and perhaps the most talked about ODI. The spectators had no inkling of what was to transpire until the last ball was bowled, or rather, under-armed!
The first controversy of the match was when Greg Chappell was given not out when brilliantly caught by a diving Martin Snedden off Lance Cairns.
Greg, on 50 then, refused to walk and went on to make 90. The visitors were already feeling peeved with him. Eventually he was caught by Edgar and the innings ended.
“I caught him low down in the slips and we were left to score 236 runs to win”, he remembers.
The Kiwis were on 6 for 221, chasing 15 runs off the final over from Trevor Chappell.
Richard Hadlee straight drove the first ball of the over for a four but was LBW off the second. Wicket-keeper and now TV commentator Ian Smith took two runs each off the next two deliveries and was bowled by the fifth. NZ now 8 for 229. Six required.
And in came Brian McKechnie, a former rugby player, who had never hit a six in his first-class career. And he needed to hit a six off the last ball to tie the match.
“Take us through, Bruce, the last ball when you were at Trevor Chappell’s end, with a century under your belt”, I asked.
“There were discussions galore, Kersi. Greg talking to Trevor and to the umpires Cronin and Weser, the umpires informing Brian [McKechnie] and me about the underarm delivery, Rod Marsh imploring Greg not to go ahead with this strategy which will have damaging complications… Anyway, Trevor did as he was instructed.
“When the infamous underarm was bowled, Brian blocked the ball and tossed his bat to the ground in disgust.”
The New Zealand captain Geoff Howard ran onto the field to protest. He had mistakenly believed underarm bowling to be illegal. [It was made illegal after this match.]
And the rest is history. The fallout was widespread. For this unwise ploy Greg was chastised by the Australian Cricket Board, Sir Donald Bradman, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and New Zealand PM Robert Muldoon who called the underarm delivery “an act of cowardice appropriate to a team playing in yellow.”
Eldest brother Ian Chappell condemned this action by writing, “Fair dinkum, Greg, how much pride do you sacrifice to win $35,000? Because, brother, you sacrificed a lot in front of a huge TV audience and 52,825 people.”
When I had interviewed Greg last year, he had told me that he “absolutely regretted the decision which was made in the heat of the moment.”
McKechnie recently said, “Trevor didn’t say sorry at the end of the match or the next day. We are on talking terms now and I have no ill feelings.”
Bruce Edgar, now 54, is a fitness fanatic, cycling hundreds of kilometres a day on occasions.
He scored 1958 runs at 30.59 in 39 Tests with three centuries, his highest being 161 against Australia in the 1981 Auckland Test.
This innings was behind New Zealand’ surprise victory over Australia. He made 1814 runs at 30.74 in 64 ODIs with 102 not out in the above discussed MCG match as his only century. The number 102 is so close to his heart that it forms part of his email address. He is nicknamed Underarm Bruce.