Underarm

[Doss]

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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Chappell piked out of the Pakistan tour in late 1982 as well though, so I don't know if it was all that; I think he was just probably gradually winding down in his career generally. He did go to New Zealand in early 1982 but let's face it, that's not much different than flying interstate and he did tour Sri Lanka in early '83, but that was a very brief tour.

His absence in 1981 probably cost us the series.

 

[footyfan1978]

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.

That would have been nothing compared to playing in New Zealand soon after.
He seemed to miss a lot of tours to India and Pakistan around this time so he clearly put a lot more value on needing a break from time to time.

 

[Doss]

G.Chappell never toured India. Neither did Lillee or Marsh.

 

[Jascave]

Chappell piked out of the Pakistan tour in late 1982 as well though, so I don't know if it was all that; I think he was just probably gradually winding down in his career generally. He did go to New Zealand in early 1982 but let's face it, that's not much different than flying interstate and he did tour Sri Lanka in early '83, but that was a very brief tour.

His absence in 1981 probably cost us the series.

Agree. Who knows what Greg Chappell would’ve done in Botham’s Match at Headingley in 1981 had he toured England and also persuading Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh not to back England at 500/1 that day plus advising then captain Kim Hughes not to enforce the follow on.


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[Doss]

Agree. Who knows what Greg Chappell would’ve done in Botham’s Match at Headingley in 1981 had he toured England and also persuading Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh not to back England at 500/1 that day plus advising then captain Kim Hughes not to enforce the follow on.


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They choked chasing 130 (from 56/1) at Headingley, and 151 from (105/4) at Edgbaston. Hard to imagine, at the very least, both occurring if Chappell had been there, and maybe neither of them would have.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

G.Chappell never toured India. Neither did Lillee or Marsh.

Tours of India were few and far between in those days. Australia toured India in 1969-70 just prior to all three being selected for Australia in 1970-71. The next tour was 1979-80, just prior to World Series Cricket and ACB ending their indifference. The next tour wasn't until 1986-87 when all three were retired. Tours of India weren't a lot of fun in those days.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Did not know about this until I just watched this video.

I haven't really thought about it, but imagine what would have happened had McKechnie skipped down the wicket, planted his foot and hit the ball for 6 as Walters suggested. What sort of discussion would have come for it? Would we have been discussing the underarm delivery, or would the issue have been whether a batsman should have been allowed to kick the ball up and then hit it? In a way, Chappell actually did the game a service by getting the underarm ball outlawed.

 

[Doss]

I haven't really thought about it, but imagine what would have happened had McKechnie skipped down the wicket, planted his foot and hit the ball for 6 as Walters suggested. What sort of discussion would have come for it? Would we have been discussing the underarm delivery, or would the issue have been whether a batsman should have been allowed to kick the ball up and then hit it? In a way, Chappell actually did the game a service by getting the underarm ball outlawed.

If McKechnie had done that and the bowler appealed for hit the ball twice, it would have been given, if the letter of the law was applied at least.

You can't hit the ball again after deliberately making contact with it (whether it be with the bat or body).

 

[Plugger35]

Chappell piked out of the Pakistan tour in late 1982 as well though, so I don't know if it was all that; I think he was just probably gradually winding down in his career generally. He did go to New Zealand in early 1982 but let's face it, that's not much different than flying interstate and he did tour Sri Lanka in early '83, but that was a very brief tour.

His absence in 1981 probably cost us the series.

You could understand Greg Chappell not going on tours to India and Pakistan as they were terrible places to tour back then but not going on an Ashes tour to England defies belief, that's the plumb tour every cricketer worth their salt wants to go on.

You could never imagine that happening now, an Australian test captain skipping an Ashes tour because they were burnt out.

He escaped criticism because he was Ian Chappell's brother and part of the boys club with Marsh and Lillee.

Ian never missed an opportunity to hop into Kim Hughes when he was commentating, even when he scored a ton it was begrudging praise at best.

 

[Gough]

It's easy to make calls with the benefit of hindsight but Rod Marsh should really have been the post WSC Australian captain. What's now clear is that neither Greg Chappell or Kim Hughes were up to it at the time.

 

[Plugger35]

It's easy to make calls with the benefit of hindsight but Rod Marsh should really have been the post WSC Australian captain. What's now clear is that neither Greg Chappell or Kim Hughes were up to it at the time.

Kim Hughes said himself that he wasn't ready for the job when he was handed the part time captaincy, his batting suffered as a result which is a shame.

Border didn't want the captaincy either when he got handed the job but his batting went to another level, he just churned out more runs and tons.

Border also didn't have Marsh and Lillee undermining him and he didn't have Greg Chappell picking and choosing when he wanted to be captain.

Kim Hughes got handed an even bigger s**t sandwich as an Australian test captain than Tim Paine.

 

[Kram]

Chappell not walking on the Snedden catch was almost worse than the underarm.

 

[Jascave]

Kim Hughes said himself that he wasn't ready for the job when he was handed the part time captaincy, his batting suffered as a result which is a shame.

Border didn't want the captaincy either when he got handed the job but his batting went to another level, he just churned out more runs and tons.

Border also didn't have Marsh and Lillee undermining him and he didn't have Greg Chappell picking and choosing when he wanted to be captain.

Kim Hughes got handed an even bigger s**t sandwich as an Australian test captain than Tim Paine.

Apart from being undermined by Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, Kim Hughes was also stabbed in the back by former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell, which led to Hughes not talking to Chappell after a coin toss in the early 1980s, and was a key reason why Hughes tearfully resigned from the captaincy after losing to the West Indies in the second Test of the 1984/85 season at the Gabba in Brisbane.


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[Wallaby]

You could understand Greg Chappell not going on tours to India and Pakistan as they were terrible places to tour back then but not going on an Ashes tour to England defies belief, that's the plumb tour every cricketer worth their salt wants to go on.

Chappell had been on England tours in 72, 75 and 77. He had also played a couple of seasons of County cricket. He also went on the one-off Centenary test tour in 1980. I think he had got his fill of England, if he didn't want to go. England were pretty crap - the Windies were the benchmark. Chappell's batting on the WSC tour of the Windies in 79 was phenomenal (to put it into perspective, Ray Bright was our 2nd best batsman).

However, I think if you drop out of an official tour (except for medical reasons), you should forfeit your right to be Australian captain ever again.

He went to Pakistan tour in 1980, but missed 82. (In 80, we got fixed up by a dodgy spinner's deck in the first test, and then had 2 draws on 2 flat roads. He probably didn't want to do that again). He never had a chance to go to India.

 

[footyfan1978]

Kim Hughes said himself that he wasn't ready for the job when he was handed the part time captaincy, his batting suffered as a result which is a shame.

Border didn't want the captaincy either when he got handed the job but his batting went to another level, he just churned out more runs and tons.

Border come close to breaking point himself several times. Shows the amount of pressure put on captain in this country.
Also highlights got to pay more attention to whom we pick in future. Steve Smith was a horrendous mistake. A good player but leadership out of his depth as we found out.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Apart from being undermined by Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh, Kim Hughes was also stabbed in the back by former Australian cricket captain Ian Chappell, which led to Hughes not talking to Chappell after a coin toss in the early 1980s, and was a key reason why Hughes tearfully resigned from the captaincy after losing to the West Indies in the second Test of the 1984/85 season at the Gabba in Brisbane.


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Nonsense.

 

[big_e]

Nonsense.

He felt like he had been undermined, and never accepted as captain by large number of the ex-WSC players. Not necessarily because of WSC - with Marsh and Lillee it went back to him playing grade cricket as a teenager - but eventually it wore him down. From his resignation letter:

"The constant speculation, criticism and innuendo by former players and sections of the media have taken their toll," he said. "In the interest of the team, Australian cricket and myself, I have informed the ACB of my decision to stand down as Australian captain."

For extra context:

John Woodcock in The Times had sympathy for a man who he said had been "rubbished more than any other Australian captain". He singled out Ian Chappell, the former captain now turned commentator, for particular blame, stating that he had "missed no opportunity of finding fault". He added that there had been little chance of finding loyalty in "the ghosted writings of Rod Marsh, his vice-captain, or Dennis Lillee, his best bowler".


"I just couldn't get along with Lillee and Marsh at all," Hughes later recalled. "We were so uneasy with each other. Now we are best mates and meet regularly, but then the chemistry wasn't good at all."


But as time went on, it became clearer why Hughes had quit. He was told by the selectors at the start of the season that he would not see out the series as they did not see him as being a good enough leader, and what is more that despite his strong objections he had to carry out pre- and post-match interviews with Chappell, who then slammed his every move.


Hughes decided to quit on the fourth day at Brisbane and neither Merriman, Fred Bennett, the ACB chairman, or Greg Chappell, the head of the selectors, tried to dissuade him. Only Dave Richards, the ACB chief executive who later headed the ICC, attempted to talk him out of it, but by then Hughes realised that he had few friends left where it mattered.

 

[Belnakor]

Kim Hughes got handed an even bigger s**t sandwich as an Australian test captain than Tim Paine.

Paine has pretty much everyone on board from day 1, tbh i don't think Paine's job was that hard. The only way was up in alot of ways. Lets not forget he just lost us a series in Australia vs India.

Hughes on the other hand had two world class pricks (Lillee and Chapell) dogging him every step of the way, i'm not sure anyone could have led that team well.

 

[Jascave]

To give you an idea of the animosity between Dennis Lillee and Kim Hughes, the classic example came in 1983 in the first final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup in Sydney between Australia and New Zealand, where Lillee and Hughes had a public disagreement over the field that Lillee wanted to set for the NZ batsman.


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