On this Day in 1981 – A Shameful act in Cricket History

International Cricket witnessed the most disgraceful incident in the Gentleman’s game Cricket. While New Zealand needed six off the last ball just to tie. If you were an Australian, you’d back yourself to win, wouldn’t you? Greg Chappell didn’t. He was so scared of New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie (one-day career: 54 runs in 14 matches) that he ordered his bowler – who just happened to be his brother, Trevor – to bowl the last ball underarm. It did the trick and Australia won the match, but they lost a lot of friends. The tactic caused much consternation and was quickly banned. Ian Chappell, brother of Trevor and Greg, was commentating at the time and said: “No Greg, you can’t do that.”