Tuesday, June 23, 2009

TREVOR CHAPPELL

A star schoolboy cricketer and a member of Australia's first family of cricket in the 70s and 80s, Trevor Chappell made his debut for South Australia in 1972-73, before relocating to Western Australia in 1976-77 and again to New South Wales in 1979-80.

He also joined World Series Cricket and played in the Lancashire League. It was with New South Wales that Trevor played his best cricket and solid performances including a career best 150 against Western Australia led to his selection in the 1981 tour of England.

Trevor was more successful in the short form of the game, scoring 110 for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup. After retiring from first-class cricket in 1986, Chappell played several seasons of Sydney grade cricket with North Sydney and coached the Gordon Women's Cricket Club, then to Sri Lanka as a fielding coach, and Bangladesh as their national coach.

THE GOAT!

On February 1st, 1981, Trevor was instructed by his brother Greg (who also happened to be captain of Australia) to bowl an underarm delivery against New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie.

With New Zealand needing a six from the final ball to tie the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Trevor did as he was told, instantly becoming a household name - for all the wrong reasons.

While the underarm delivery within the rules, it was considered unsporting as it is almost impossible to hit a six from a ball delivered in this way.

Australia won the game, but boos were heard from the crowd as the New Zealand batsmen marched off in disgust. Since that day, the underarm incident has caused many a near punch up between Australians and New Zealanders.

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