Underarm

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It is beyond belief why the Australian team didn’t have a plan in place to work out who was going to bowl overs 45-50 prior to the NZ run chase that day. And also the other thing is, if Greg Chappell was so worn out by what had gone on throughout the summer (hectic schedule of Sheffield Shield/McDonald’s Cup/Test/ODIs in 1980/81; battle with the Melbourne Cricket Club over state of MCG pitch), why didn’t he sit out the fateful 3rd final, and allowed Kim Hughes or Rod Marsh to be acting captain of Australia that day?


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What you have to remember in those days we in Melbourne didn't get the full game live on Channel 9, only the first two hours (or 20 overs) of the game. Which meant you had to listen to ABC Radio throughout the day, then wait until 10:30-11:00pm for the highlights hosted by the late Richie Benaud.
 

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STFU Donnie said:
Dick French and (especially) Tony Crafter were fine umpires.
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It makes me wonder what might have been if those two excellent umpires, Dick French and Tony Crafter were in control of the infamous 3rd Final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup and not the umpires who was appointed to do the game, Peter Cronin and Don Weser. Would French and Crafter not allow Greg Chappell to order brother Trevor to bowl the ball underarm to NZ tail end batsman (and former All Black) Brian McKechnie? And how would they-French and Crafter-rule on the no-catch of Martin Snedden off Greg Chappell?


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Jascave said:
It makes me wonder what might have been if those two excellent umpires, Dick French and Tony Crafter were in control of the infamous 3rd Final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup and not the umpires who was appointed to do the game, Peter Cronin and Don Weser. Would French and Crafter not allow Greg Chappell to order brother Trevor to bowl the ball underarm to NZ tail end batsman (and former All Black) Brian McKechnie? And how would they-French and Crafter-rule on the no-catch of Martin Snedden off Greg Chappell?


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Not sure the umpires could do anything to stop the underarm being bowled as it was legal in Australia at the time.
 
How on earth could people score from balls rolled along the ground? Why didn't you just bowl all 50 overs along the ground and crowd the batsmen?
 
Kappa said:
How on earth could people score from balls rolled along the ground? Why didn't you just bowl all 50 overs along the ground and crowd the batsmen?
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It was still very early in the history of ODI cricket. India were the other team for the 80/81 tri series and they'd played something like six ODIs in their history prior to the tournament but captains had already started looking at how they could bend the rules to their advantage. There'd been had the situation with Brearley the season prior when he'd put all ten men on the boundary for the last ball of a game that had lead to the reintroduction of the field restriction circles first tried in WSC. Chappell's circumstance's aside, it was a case of the rules of the cricket catching up to the modern game.
 
Greg Chappell said in the Underarm documentary that the decision to order younger brother Trevor to bowl the ball underarm to Brian McKechnie was aimed at the administration for their failure to do something about the crazy schedule the Australian team had to deal with and also the state of the MCG wicket, which would be graded as poor by today’s standards.


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Father Jack said:
I should have added a 'virtually' before 'identical' then. It always pays to add some kind of qualifier when relying on memory alone, doesn't it?
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Yes, always plenty of expert researches here with the free time to put you in your place...
 
Gough said:
It was still very early in the history of ODI cricket. India were the other team for the 80/81 tri series and they'd played something like six ODIs in their history prior to the tournament but captains had already started looking at how they could bend the rules to their advantage. There'd been had the situation with Brearley the season prior when he'd put all ten men on the boundary for the last ball of a game that had lead to the reintroduction of the field restriction circles first tried in WSC. Chappell's circumstance's aside, it was a case of the rules of the cricket catching up to the modern game.
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Actually, the fielding restrictions were first tried in South African domestic one-dayers. There have been quite a few attempts at rule changes to make (keep) the game entertaining. 2x25-over blocks per innings, 12- or 14- player teams (only 11 could bat).

As for fiddling the rules, it's still hard to beat Somerset in the last qualifying game of a season. The only way they could miss the finals was to lose the game AND lose a lot of wickets (the percentage/tiebreaker was total wickets lost over the season) - so they declared after one over. Declarations had never been addressed in One-day rules, because there seemed no point. Somerset qualified, but were kicked out of the comp anyway.
 
I remember thinking that it wasn’t a big deal when it was actually unfolding.
Brealey had thought out of the square earlier when 4 runs to get and everyone including the wicky on the boundary.
Just one of those rule change moments in the evolution of a entertainment based form of cricket.
Was surprised that it was a legal delivery and more surprised at the carry on afterwards.
To be honest it did put New Zealand on the map. Never really heard of them before that.




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Boston tiger said:
I remember thinking that it wasn’t a big deal when it was actually unfolding.
Brealey had thought out of the square earlier when 4 runs to get and everyone including the wicky on the boundary.
Just one of those rule change moments in the evolution of a entertainment based form of cricket.
Was surprised that it was a legal delivery and more surprised at the carry on afterwards.
To be honest it did put New Zealand on the map. Never really heard of them before that.




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The Underarm incident really did put NZ Cricket on the map, because by the end of the 1980s, the Black Caps defeated Australia in Australia and NZ, beat India in India, and won a Test series in England.


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I used to have a book written by Greg Chappell about the 1980-81 season called ‘Unders and Overs-the Controversies of Cricket’.

There is a chapter in the book about the non-catch taken by Martin Snedden, and there is a photo which showed the umpires weren’t watching the catch at all-even when Snedden caught the ball. The reason according to umpires Cronin and Weser was that they were watching the batsmen run between the wicket.


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Adelaide Hawk said:
I don't know what more people want from Greg Chappell. He's explained the reasons why it happened, and stated over and over and over again that he was wrong, apologised, and wished it never happened. If he was still saying he did nothing wrong, I could understand the vitriol towards him. What more can he do?
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he has alot of excuses for why it happened but I don't think he has actually admitted the simple truth that he did it so they would win the game.

For a guy who has basically pillored Smith/Warner every chance he has gotten he has taken very little actual responsibility for the underarm. He has given alot of reasons and excuses.
 
Belnakor said:
he has alot of excuses for why it happened but I don't think he has actually admitted the simple truth that he did it so they would win the game.

For a guy who has basically pillored Smith/Warner every chance he has gotten he has taken very little actual responsibility for the underarm. He has given alot of reasons and excuses.
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It’s a given that he did it to win the game. He’s the captain of Australia.. it’s his job. You nailed it when you said “ simple “.


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010203 said:
Wonder if we'll hear Doug Walters explain how he would have gone about trying hit the ball for 6.
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Small issue with that - technically, if a batsman did that you could be given out:

34.1 Out Hit the ball twice
34.1.1 The striker is out Hit the ball twice if, while the ball is in play, it strikes any part of his/her person or is struck by his/her bat and, before the ball has been touched by a fielder, the striker wilfully strikes it again with his/her bat or person, other than a hand not holding the bat, except for the sole purpose of guarding his/her wicket.
34.1.2 For the purpose of this Law ‘struck’ or ‘strike’ shall include contact with the person of the striker.
 
Gough said:
It was still very early in the history of ODI cricket. India were the other team for the 80/81 tri series and they'd played something like six ODIs in their history prior to the tournament but captains had already started looking at how they could bend the rules to their advantage. There'd been had the situation with Brearley the season prior when he'd put all ten men on the boundary for the last ball of a game that had lead to the reintroduction of the field restriction circles first tried in WSC. Chappell's circumstance's aside, it was a case of the rules of the cricket catching up to the modern game.
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England refused to use the full rules of WSC at first. Hence why they wore white that season and keeper Bairstow was at the sightscreen that ball.
 
Plugger35 said:
Refusing to walk off after Snedden took that catch wasn't great sportsmanship from Greg Chappell either, it was clearly a catch and Snedden told him he had caught it cleanly which should have been enough for him to walk off but with no 3rd umpire reviews back then he got given the benefit of the doubt.

Ironically he was caught with a similar catch by Edgar later on but decided to walk off then as he probably thought Australia had a big enough score to win.
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Watched this doco hours ago. Where Sneeden too kcatch would have been over 60 metres from Chappell. If he did not see him clearly catch it he well within his rights to leave it up to umps to let him know. Actually got no issue with it when see the full thing. It was caught but can if Chappell did not see it. so be it.
Problem was umps did not see it too. Happened heaps of times in games before video reviews etc.

The Edgar one he probably saw for sure Edgar got hand under ball so walked off satisfied he was out.

But for doco drama build up in hindsight you add it in and make it seem more drama that it was in isolation and good for doco filling out over 40 minutes.

Doco was pretty poorly done actually to not even include the Wayne Daniel six from a couple of years before that also would have been in Chappell mind in a tight finish.

Before doco ended was almost thinking, it probably good it happened to remove underarm ball from cricket rules. Was probably relevant in 1860's but not over 100 years later. I am kind of impressed how well Chappell knew the rules to realise you could use it. Was not sporting at all, but somewhat shrewd tactically. Like Brearley putting Bairstow on fence a year or so earlier.

At end of doco actually felt sorry for Trevor Chappell. To actually only be remembered for his underarm is sad tale personally. It is how I remember him until this doco. Now I just think poor bugger. In the wrong place at wrong time. Greg, basically said if it was anyone else, he would not have asked to do such a thing. But it was little brother and in mental meltdown he did and his little bro probably the only one that not going to directly defy him.

It was so long ago now I cannot remember how long after it , it was still a drama. Certainly was a big talking point for year or so but two years later most of us kind of moved on. I was too young at time to really understand fully what was going on. Was certainly listening on radio that day when it happened and thinking wtf ? like everyone else.
 
footyfan78 said:
Watched this doco hours ago. Where Sneeden too kcatch would have been over 60 metres from Chappell. If he did not see him clearly catch it he well within his rights to leave it up to umps to let him know. Actually got no issue with it when see the full thing. It was caught but can if Chappell did not see it. so be it.
Problem was umps did not see it too. Happened heaps of times in games before video reviews etc.

The Edgar one he probably saw for sure Edgar got hand under ball so walked off satisfied he was out.
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Apparently the umpires were too busy watching the batsmen running between wickets to make sure they didn't run one short.

Surely at least one of them should have been watching the ball to see if the catch was taken but they probably didn't expect Snedden to get to it.

If there were video reviews back then it would have been given out as he took the catch above the ground.
 
Plugger35 said:
Apparently the umpires were too busy watching the batsmen running between wickets to make sure they didn't run one short.

Surely at least one of them should have been watching the ball to see if the catch was taken but they probably didn't expect Snedden to get to it.

If there were video reviews back then it would have been given out as he took the catch above the ground.
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Agreed, back then though, probably 20 to 30 catches a summer of this variety where video replays not accessible to umps that comes back to naked eye and whether umps concentrating. Stiff for Snedeen as it was a great catch.
 
Seeing just how much pressure Greg Chappell was under throughout the summer of 1980/81, it’s not hard to see why he didn’t go to England for the 1981 Ashes series, also taking into account what sort of reception would be awaiting Chappell from the UK tabloids and the English crowds over the underarm incident had he gone on tour.


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