Australia's Trevor Chappell bowls underarm to New Zealand's Brian McKechnie
The controversial Underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred on 1 February 1981 between Australia and New Zealand in the final of the Benson and Hedges World series cup at the Melbourne cricket ground.New Zealand needed 6 runs to tie in that match in the last remaining ball.And the Australian bowler Trevor Chappell bowled the last ball in the under arm action inorder to prevent the batsman from hitting a six.This action was technically legal, but seen as being against the spirit of the game.
New Zealand needed six runs off the last ball and the captain of Australia Greg Chappell told to the bowler Trevor Chappell (Greg’s brother) to bowl an underarm action in which the ball roles along the pitch to the New Zealand batsman Brian McKechnie.This prevented the batsman for a chance to hit the six.At that time “underarm” action was within the laws of cricket.
After this “underarm” incident,the then prime minister of New Zealand,Rob Muldoon said to the media that this is the most disgusting incident in the history of cricket.
As a result of this incident underarm bowling was banned in limited over cricket games by the International Cricket Council as “not within the spirit of the game”.
Video of “underarm” “1981″ incident
