Aussies admit: underarm ‘terrible thing’
‘‘The funniest thing is when people talk about what happened or where they were and they don’t actually realise you were right there.’’
Bruce Edgar was right there – he made an unbeaten 102 and was at the other end when Trevor Chappell, under instructions from older brother and Australian captain Greg, bowled underarm at the MCG on February 1, 1981.
Thirty-eight years on, Prime TV will screen a documentary on Sunday 3 February at 8:30pm on the incident that will never be forgotten – or allowed to let go – by Kiwi sports fans.
‘‘It might be a guy at Customs or an Aussie . . . they’ll ask you what you recall of it and I’ll say ‘I recall every ball of it.’ Then the Aussies usually hang their heads down and say that was a terrible thing we did,’’ Edgar said.
It was the third game in the best-of-five Benson and Hedges series one-day finals. The threeteam competition which also featured India began with New Zealand scoring a shock win over the hosts in Sydney in the opening match on November 23,
1980.
New Zealand repeated that in the opening final in Sydney when Richard Hadlee took 5-26 and Brian McKechnie – in the squad as an injury replacement – 3-23 in a 78-run win.
Game two had been played the previous day at the same Melbourne venue, with New Zealand 126 all out batting first in
46.4 overs. Greg Chappell made sure his side levelled the series with 58 not out in a seven-wicket triumph.
‘‘Very low, no pace and bounce,’’ Edgar said of the wicket.
‘‘Probably why Trevor Chappell bowled the last over. I know Greg got criticised by various commentators [over his bowling organisation] but in hindsight he was probably the best guy to bowl it.’’
THE CATCH THAT WASN’T
Had it not been for the sensational climax yet to come, there still would have been a massive controversial talking point that was overshadowed by the underarm.
When on 58 as Australia built an imposing total batting first, Greg Chappell lofted Lance Cairns into the vast mid-wicket outfield, Martin Snedden sprinted in a dived forward to grab a spectacular catch centimetres off the grass.
‘‘WHAT A CATCH!’’ exclaimed commentator Richie Benaud, in what was to become a famous catchphrase. ‘‘That is one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in my life.’’
But it’s not a catch until it’s given out, and umpires Peter Cronin and Don Weser didn’t do so while Chappell wasn’t budging.
New Zealand skipper Geoff Howarth confronted Cronin, who was nearest to the catch at the bowler’s end, who remarkably told him he didn’t see the catch being completed as he was making sure Chappell didn’t leave his bat short of the crease when attempting two runs.
‘‘It was actually so obvious to me, even from the other side of the ground. I could see he’d taken it quite cleanly,’’ Edgar said.
Soon after, Mark Burgess ‘playfully’ threatened Cronin with the mallet he was using for some pitch repairs, producing a staggering moment of commentary from former England paceman Frank ‘Typhoon’ Tyson: ‘‘Well, the Maoris [sic] would have been proud of Burgess there.’’
Chappell got to 90 from 122 balls before he bizarrely departed to a near-replica catch; this time by Edgar off Snedden’s bowling.
Chappell walked this time – ‘‘he had a few more runs under his belt,’’ Edgar reckoned.
The left-handed opener anchored New Zealand’s chase for a taxing 235 for victory – probably the 2019 equivalent of needing 360 on a good deck – with his unbeaten ton, facing 141 balls
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 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.’’ Bruce Edgar