Underarm ‘terrible thing’
but none in the final over.
THE LAST OVER
New Zealand began the last over bowled by Trevor needing an unlikely 15 for the win but had their hopes raised by Hadlee striking a four to long-on off the first ball.
But Weser then fired Hadlee lbw next ball to one pitching outside leg – ‘‘dear oh dear,’’ said commentator Bill Lawry.
‘‘I’m sort of ruing the fact I may have said [in the documentary] I thought the umpire’s finger was up before the end of the appeal. It was such a fast decision. In reflection, it looked as though it had some pleasure that went with it.’’
Chappell bowled a good death over, limiting Ian Smith to a pair of twos off the next two balls before the keeper-batsman was bowled by a half-tracker that didn’t even get halfway up middle stump.
McKechnie – until then, famous as the All Black who kicked the winning penalty for the All Blacks in a test against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park in 1978 after Andy Haden deliberately dived out off a lineout – needed a six to only tie the match off the last ball.
Instead, he blocked the accurate ground-grubber before throwing his bat away in disgust, while Edgar turned and gave the fingers – an impressive feat with bulky batting gloves.
‘‘My kids often say to me it Bruce Edgar was a bit of a wasted effort, one would have been enough.
‘‘Oh, I dropped a couple of expletives too . . . it was probably more the symbolism of the two sausages that they got.’’
He wasn’t the only Kiwi to let them know what he thought – Prime Minister Robert Muldoon soon weighed in by adding: ‘‘I thought it was most appropriate that the Australian team was dressed in yellow.’’
Edgar did feel sympathy for the Aussie skipper – ‘‘he was feeling a lot of pressure as captain and about his own performance.’’
In the documentary, Chappell admits struggling to sleep and eat prior to the match.
He certainly felt worse after. ‘‘The kids started jumping the fence and running out and this young girl tugged on my shirtsleeve . . . and I looked down at her and she was looking up at me and she said ‘you cheated’. At that moment I thought that this might be a bit bigger than I’d even imagined,’’ Chappell said.
He was loudly booed by home fans – and still infuriated ex-pat Kiwis – when he walked out to bat for game four in Sydney two days later, but walked off to a standing ovation after his innings of 87 off 102 balls which clinched a sixwicket win and a series triumph. THE AFTERMATH
The incident marked the beginning of the end of Chappell’s captaincy – not to his chagrin. He made himself unavailable for overseas tours, with Kim Hughes in charge.
The match did virtually spell the end for umpires Cronin and Weser – neither officiated in another men’s international.
The underarm was made illegal by the ICC following the series, stating it was ‘‘not within the spirit of the game’’.
Edgar, who later spent time in Sydney as a financial services consultant and high performance batting coach for Cricket New South Wales, got to know Greg Chappell well at the Cricket Australia high performance centre in Brisbane.
He also got in touch with Trevor in a memorable way.
‘‘He was coaching Kings in a 1st XI game against my son’s team and one of their boys got injured just in front of us.
‘‘Trevor was over the far side, he used to wear a wide-brim hat, you knew it was him . . . he came running over to look after this kid and my wife said to me ‘are you going to go say hello to Trevor?’
‘‘I said ‘I will in a minute – I’ll wait till he goes past me and I’ll spring him from behind’.
‘‘I went up behind him and I bear-hugged him and I said ‘f---ing underarm bowler’.
‘‘I heard the air go out of him as he thought ‘another crazy Kiwi’.
‘‘He looked around and I said ‘it’s ok, Trevor; it’s Bruce.’
‘‘And he said ‘Oh thank god it’s you.’’
‘‘It might be a guy at Customs or an Aussie . they’ll ask you what you recall of it ... ‘I recall every ball of it.’’
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