How car park exchange between Ian and Greg Chappell put full stop on underarm incident

Exactly forty years on, we reveal the untold stories of the most controversial moment in Australian sporting history.

Cricket’s Decision Review System gets blamed for a lot of things but had it been around 40 years ago the game would never have witnessed its most divisive delivery – The Underarm.

So says New Zealand legend Sir Richard Hadlee in a view revealed as the 40th anniversary of the infamous underarm delivery from Trevor Chappell to Brian McKechnie at the MCG arrives on Monday.

Every player in that 50-over match was touched in some way by the withering cyclone that engulfed the code after McKechnie bunted the final ball of the match away, tossing his bat in protest after a harmless rolling six-stitcher became a wrecking ball for trans-Tasman relations.

The numb, frozen silence in Australia’s dressing room. The expletive-laden outrage in the Kiwi rooms nearby where cups were angrily thrown to the floor. The letters and phone calls of protests from irate fans.

Trevor Chappell bowls underarm to Brian McKechnie at the MCG.

The tub-thumping of indignant politicians outraged that Australian captain Greg Chappell should ask his younger brother Trevor to bowl an underarm ball when the Kiwis needed six to tie the game off the last ball of the 50 over match on February 1, 1981.

Hadlee’s memory is a more subtle one.

When he watches DRS correcting the game’s howlers today he thinks back to facing the second ball of the last over of the match, bowled by Trevor Chappell, with the Kiwis requiring 11 off five balls to win, and how the DRS could have reshaped history.

“I got a very poor lbw decision,’’ Hadlee said.

“DRS would have sorted that out and changed the course of history. The ball pitched outside leg stump (as confirmed by Trevor’s older brother Ian in commentary). Had I not been given out the match might well have taken a different course.

Richard Hadlee was Australia’s nemesis at the time.

“That’s my memory. The underarm ball was actually a legal delivery but I copped a shocker.’’

Hadlee, once the fiercest of competitors with a stare that would blaze a hole in a bank vault door, is now a more mellow man who feels no sense of lingering resentment over the incident.

“To be honest a lot of us just want to forget about it. Greg has been apologetic about it. It happened. The more we reminisce about it, it just brings it back. I have got past it to be honest.

“It is part of history. It is there. It’s indelible. I understand that – but I am over it. I mean 40 years – how long can you hold on to something like that?

“I have a lot of respect for Greg and seen a fair bit of him over the years. I have been to functions with him where we have discussed the underarm. I tend to be quite coy about it.’’

Brian McKechnie throws his bat in disgust.

DRESSING ROOM FURY

Kiwi keeper Ian Smith was dismissed the ball before the underarm. When he retreated to his dressing room he saw scenes he had never encountered before or since as his teammates watched Australia prepare for the delivery by informing umpires Don Weser and Peter Cronin it would be bowled underarm.

“I was a 23-year-old kid and my first emotion was disappointment at not being able to win the match but I knew something strange was happening when our captain Geoff Howarth walked past me onto the field in his socks (and partially unbuttoned trousers to unsuccessfully claim the tactic was illegal),’’ Smith said.

“When I got back to the downstairs part of the dressing room all hell broke loose. There were blokes shouting expletives everywhere and one or two cups went flying. I went upstairs and they told me what was happening. A couple of the players just went absolutely spare.

“Others were transfixed. They were just sitting there.

“Then the players came off. Brian McKechnie was shaking his head but you could tell he was processing everything and wondering whether he could have done anything differently.

“The Australian players came past us and you could tell what they were thinking by the looks on their faces. Rod Marsh was really upset. Almost apologetic.’’

Then the teams retreated to their rooms as tension mounted and the first signs of an icy division surfaced along national lines.

Now a commentator, Ian Smith was captain of New Zealand at the time.

“In those days the team which batted last would go into the fielding room after stumps – it didn’t happen. The dressing room stayed shut.

“Sitting around in the dressing room after stumps we had five or so beers and then laid out the New Zealand flag. It was a patriotic gesture.

“I remember (CA board member) Phil Ridings came in and apologised. Suddenly it felt bigger than Texas. We drank for two and half hours yet when we went outside there must have been 2500 people there.

“It was amazing. There were a hell of a lot of Aussies there and they even offered to carry our bags. Back at the hotel, messages came from everywhere. We realised the confrontation seemed bigger than cricket.

“When we finally got home we had lost the Test and one-day series but it did not seem to matter. People were behind us. The incident had galvanised New Zealand cricket. Kids wanted to play a game. A fuse had been lit.’’

Trevor Chappell bowling underarm to Brian McKechnie.

SILENCE AND SOBRIETY

When Doug Walters recalls the underarm day he thinks of two things – an unopened fridge and a silent plane.

“The aftermath stands out to me,’’ Walters said. “The NSW players in the team were heading home early to Sydney that night and I remember the police advised Greg to leave with us and get out of Melbourne as soon as possible.

“I remember they held the plane up for us because it was the last plane out. When we walked on the plane everyone knew what had happened but because the engines were not running it was deathly quiet.

“There was not a breath of air – I said “I know we are trying to sneak out of Melbourne but this is ridiculous.’ The captain of the plane started laughing.

“I was on the boundary when the ball was bowled. There were no restrictions in those days. It was not only Marshy who had regrets about it.

“When we got to the dressing room it was really quiet and no-one went anywhere near the fridge. That was very unusual. We had a drink win, lose or draw. But it didn’t feel right.

“There were officials coming into the room. Some of them were in tears. It was like a morgue.’’

A BROTHER’S LAMENT

Greg Chappell’s older brother Ian has always been Greg’s hero. But that never stopped them from speaking their mind to each other in the most robust of ways.

The underarm put them on a collision course with Ian commentating on Channel 9 when the ball was bowled then writing a stridently critical newspaper column the next day.

His only concession to family sensitivities was to ring his mother Jeanne and warn her he was about to strongly criticise his younger brother in print.

Media coverage at the time was damning.

Front page of ‘The Sun’ newspaper. February 3, 1981.

“I rang her because I wrote a strong piece for The Sun speaking out against the underarm and told her before the story was going in,’’ Ian said.

“I am pretty sure she said ‘I will support any of you boys even if you commit a murder’ and I reassured her she was probably not going to have to do that. She made it pretty clear she was not thrilled about me coming out against Greg.’’

When Ian and Greg ran into each other in the SCG car park in the next few days Greg spotted a nearby band hopping off a bus and clipped Ian with “shouldn’t you be on the bandwagon with the rest of them.

“I said ‘well if you don’t like what I write, don’t read it.’’ But after a while Greg said “I ordered it, Trevor bowled and if you had agreed with it they would have thought we were all mad’’.

“That cleared the air and there was never a problem. We sorted it out in a couple of days with some strong words and a bit of humour.

“Greg knows I will always support Trevor as far as that incident is concerned. I always say “don’t blame Trevor, blame Greg.’ Trevor had no chance. Not only was it the captain telling him, it was his older brother.’’

“I have a better understanding now of the pressures Greg was under but I categorise it as the same as Bodyline. If they didn’t want Bodyline then they should have banned Bodyline field placings.

“If they didn’t want the underarm they should have outlawed it in international cricket like it was in country cricket.

“It happens every time. The administrators make the mistake … the players pay the price.’’