Trevor Chappell: ‘Underarm ruined me, this will haunt them forever’
THE name Trevor Chappell has been synonymous for nearly 40 years with the most despicable act an Australian has committed on the cricket field when he infamously bowled underarm to secure victory over the Kiwis. But that has changed.
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INFAMOUS underarm bowler Trevor Chappell has served up a warning to ball-tampering trio Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft saying “this will haunt you forever.”
The infamy from 37 years ago has never left Chappell whose infamous lawn bowl on the MCG pitch on the orders of his brother ensured he could never boast a cricket resume to overshadow the notoriety.
“What I did has lived with me ever since and it will be the same for Smith and Bancroft,” the 65-year-old told the Daily Telegraph.
“They will struggle for the rest of their lives and be known as the ones who brought Australian cricket into disrepute.
“I’m the last one who comes up on Google as the man who took the lead role in Australian cricket’s darkest day — it’s a real relief I can finally drop that title.
“I thought it was a good idea to underarm bowl at the time but not these days.
“I struggled a lot with it mentally, I was vilified for years and people will still ask about it.
“I don’t know if my brothers have done better in life than me after what happened, Greg copped it at the time, but the quiet life certainly chose me after that — my marriage broke down and I never remarried or had kids.
“These days all I do is coach cricket to kids and play golf,” he said.
Disgraced former captain Smith and has been universally condemned after admitting he authorised batsman Bancroft to use tape to interfere with the ball in a bid to create reverse-swing against South Africa.
It was premeditated cheating and both have relinquished their titles as captain and vice.
Chappell’s underarm bowl was on the spur of the day and not illegal, though still against the spirit of cricketing fair play.
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Compared to his illustrious older brothers Ian and Greg, Chappell went on to have an underwhelming international career, despite his all-round prowess and magnetic fielding.
His marriage in 1981 to Lorraine Gavin in Canberra buckled under pressure and several years later the pair split.
“The pressure of what happened on the cricket pitch in 1981 didn’t help, I kept things bottled up instead of talking about them,” he said.
“It’s sad but that’s what happened.”
After he retired from first class cricket in the mid-1980s, Chappell sought a lifeline back through cricket through coaching.
He started at Gordon Women’s Cricket Club in Sydney.
Eventually, he returned back into the international fraternity as fielding coach with Sri Lanka, followed by a stint as head coach of Bangladesh in the early 2000s.
Nowadays he is head coach for Gordon district Cricket Club and lives in a run-down three bedroom house in the North Sydney suburb of Ryde.
Former captain Greg Chappell went on to coach the Indian test team, is a respected cricket commentator and more recently revealed he was willing to help bankroll a Hollywood remake of 1986’s Crocodile Dundee.
Their brother Ian, who captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the World Series Cricket organisation, is a respected cricket columnist and TV commentator.