Underarm incident plays up as Final draws near

Relations between New Zealand and Australia at a political level have regained their natural cordiality in the 34 years since cricket’s notorious “underarm” incident, but in the sporting context memories of the incident have dimmed very little and shadow casts is no less. That shadow will inevitably fall over the MCG on Sunday when New Zealand and Australia meet in Cricket World Cup final: the incident has become folkloric and is evoked routinely when teams from the nations meet on any significant sporting occasion.

It was on the same MCG pitch on Feb. 1, 1981 that Australia captain Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor to bowl, underarm, the last ball of a one-day international match when New Zealand needed to hit six runs to force a tie. That type of delivery, rolled along the ground, took away any chance that the New Zealand batsman would have any chance of lifting the ball off the pitch and hitting it out of the ground for a six.

Though at least three players on each of the current squads weren’t born when the underarm delivery was bowled, and though most of the others were too young to have regarded it with any interest, the incident will still have been inculcated in their collective memory. “I guess a few of us were too young to remember seeing it but we know it happened,” Tim Southee, who was two at the time, said. As for this week, he added. “The rivalry between Australia and New Zealand does pretty much cover every sport and it is massive,” he said.

Robert Muldoon, New Zealand’s PM at the time, described it as “the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket. It was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow.” Former Australia captain Richie Benaud, said it was “one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field.”