After 43 years, former Australia captain Greg Chappell has reflected on one of the most infamous events in the history of ODI cricket.
Flashback to 1981, Australia faced off against New Zealand, with the Black Caps needing to score six runs off the final ball to tie the match.
Instead of letting the game continue, Greg Chappell forced his younger brother Trevor to bowl an underarm ball along the ground, meaning New Zealand couldn't draw the match.
It would also change the legacies of all players involved in the incident.
Now 75 years of age, Chappell surprisingly revealed that wasn't the main reason. Rather, it was a protest of the MCG ground and playing conditions.
“It's not one of the better moments I get to reflect on… the difficult part probably for people to understand is it had very little to do with what was going on on the field on that day,” Chappell told SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“That was part of it, obviously. But there was a lot of stuff going on around the team and cricket at the time, not least of all around the MCG and the standard of the pitches that we were copping at the MCG at the time.
“I was in the middle of plenty of discussions on a regular basis... about getting better facilities.
"They (Cricket Australia) didn't own the ground, so they would go to Cricket Victoria who didn't own the ground, who would go to the Melbourne Cricket Club… who didn't seem to care much, which was a great shame.
“To serve up those sorts of conditions consistently at the MCG, it was disappointing from everyone's point of view, except, it seemed, the MCC at the time.
“It was a decision that was made on the spur of the moment… and my thinking as he walked out to bat was, ‘I've had a gutful of this, this is what I think of it'.
“It was probably about as good a decision as I was in a state of mind to be able to make.”
Since the incident, Chappell continued to forge his career as one of Australia's great cricketers before becoming a selector of the national team.
Shortly afterwards, bowling underarm was outlawed in the game of cricket despite not being illegal at the time.
