[ad_1]
Former Australian captain Greg Chappell has gleefully recalled the infamous armpit delivery nearly 40 years later, saying his next game in New Zealand was “like the Beverly Hillbillies.”
As a guest on Seven Network’s The Front Bar, Chappell was asked about the moment he ordered his younger brother Trevor to roll the last ball across the ground towards New Zealand taileder Brian McKenchie, with six needed to tie the cricket of the ODI finals of three series. party in February 1981.
Greg Chappell told the show: “I was having a beer with Geoff Howarth, who was the captain of New Zealand at the time, at the end of the game a couple of days earlier. We were going to New Zealand shortly after this and Geoff was lamenting the fact that we had big crowds in Australia, but in New Zealand he said ‘we can’t get anybody to show up’.
“[Howarth said] The All Blacks are the most important and the cricket team runs a very distant second, and we find it very difficult to motivate people to come and see us. I said ‘leave it to me,’ ”Chappell said with a laugh.
READ MORE:
* Australia’s armpit ball is a ‘terrible thing’ – the cricket incident New Zealand will never forget
* Underarm documentary offers precision
The following summer Australia toured New Zealand and the first ODI in Auckland drew a gigantic crowd with spectators huddled around the boundary wire.
Ryan Pierse / Getty Images
Former captain Greg Chappell became the Australian coach in recent years.
Chappell compared some of the scenes to the old American television comedy, With Cattle.
“Interestingly, the response from the New Zealand team and the public has been fantastic. We went to New Zealand shortly after and the first day we played was Eden Park and they showed up from all over the place, a lot of them, “Chappell told The Front Bar.
“It was like Beverly Hillbillies showing up, seriously, they were all coming from the farm. When I went out to bat, there was a duck shoved on the ground, there was a pig that got loose, and the next thing that appeared was a bowl of grass. “
Chappell also recounted a meeting with then-Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, who had previously called the surrender of the armpit an act of cowardice and that “it was appropriate for Australians to wear yellow.”
The captain of Australia said he received a warm reception.
“It was interesting. He met us at a prime minister’s function on the tour a few months later, and invited Geoff Howarth and me to meet him in his office before going to the function. And he said ‘listen, don’t worry too much about all that, you have to do those things for the press’ … We had a very good night at his expense that night.
Mark Kolbe / Getty Images
Australian coach Justin Langer, captain Tim Paine and coach Greg Chappell in January 2019.
When asked about the idea of underarm bowling, Chappell told The Front Bar that he had not seen it before at a cricket match, but that it had been discussed at the Australian camp.
At the time it was within the rules.
“Doug Walters practiced it. I couldn’t believe Brian McKechnie just blocked the ball because Dougie used to kick the ball up with his front foot and then kick it out of the park. “
Chappell said the relationship with brother Trevor went well afterwards, despite great anger from both sides of the Tasman.
“Like he said, ‘He was my older brother, what do I do? Just do what they tell me. ‘ The funny thing is, I think if it had been someone else, I wouldn’t have asked them to do it. “
