Today marks 40 years since the underarm incident, where an Australian bowler rolled a ball along the ground to prevent New Zealand batsman Brian McKechnie from hitting a six off the final ball of the match. A disgusted Bruce Edgar had a prime view of the infamous episode and spoke with Herald senior journalist Kurt Bayer to reflect on a moment that changed New Zealand sport forever.
Exhausted and sweaty, arms folded and fuming. Unbeaten on a 102, Bruce Edgar's adrenalin was pumping, having been on the vast, scorched Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) turf for every ball of what had been – right up until now – a brilliant cricket match.
With seven runs required to win off the final ball, a six would tie the scores.
New batsman Brian McKechnie strode to the crease to take strike as Australian captain Greg Chappell walked over to his bowler, and younger brother, Trevor.
Edgar watched all this. He saw Greg Chappell make a definite gesture; a lawn bowler's arm movement. Immediately, he knew what was up.
"I just said, 'What a f****** stupid way to finish a great game," recalls 64-year-old Edgar.
Going into the last over, Edgar had already notched a sensational century.
It was a scorching day played in front of 50,000 raucous Australian fans in the cauldron-like MCG atmosphere.
But with 15 runs required from the final over for New Zealand to win, Edgar was stranded at the non-striker's end and trying to figure out how to get back on strike.
The MCG's enormous boundaries – the largest in the world – meant six-hitting was almost too far to reach, but allowed for plenty of space for scampered twos, threes, and even all-run fours.
Richard Hadlee, New Zealand's superstar, hit the first ball of the final over for four.
But Hadlee was adjudged lbw to the second delivery from Trevor Chappell.
"From where I was, it probably pitched outside leg stump," recalls Edgar.
"But he was given out, probably because of who he was. Maybe the umpire was getting carried away with the occasion as well, even leading up to the final delivery."
Wicket-keeper batsman Ian Smith came in next. Smith and Edgar sprinted for twos off the third and fourth balls before he was out, bowled with the penultimate delivery, with a ball that Edgar recalls "more or less went along the ground".
"It wasn't a very bouncy pitch. It was quite low, no real pace, and it was hard to actually get under the ball," Edgar says.
In strode dual New Zealand international Brian McKechnie – who was already a cult hero after kicking a winning penalty for the All Blacks to beat Wales in the dying moments of a test at Cardiff Arms Park three years earlier - with his side needing seven runs off the final ball to win.
A six would tie the match.
But Edgar became aware of Greg Chappell walking over to talk to his brother Trevor who was to bowl the last delivery of the game.
"I saw Greg go up to Trev and motion the action of underarm. Clearly he was saying, 'Just bowl the last one underarm'," Edgar says.
"The umpires were advised and then they came and told Brian and myself that the ball was going to be bowled underarm.
"Rod Marsh [wicketkeeper] was shaking his head saying, 'No way mate, don't do it'. And Trev just did what he was told."
Later, Edgar would reveal that he thought legendary Australian paceman Dennis Lillee – also opposed to what was happening - may have deliberately tried to invalidate the underarm by stepping outside the fielding circle, meaning it should've been a no-ball.
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Edgar voiced his disgust on the field. Trevor Chappell shrugged his shoulders.
After McKechnie blocked the rolling ball, Edgar with his batting gloves still on, flicked the fingers at Trevor Chappell.
McKechnie tossed his bat on to the ground in disgust and they stomped off the field.
New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth rushed on to the ground in his socks to remonstrate with the umpires.
But the action wasn't illegal under the then laws.
Once back inside the changing rooms, a shattered Edgar found teammates alternating between disbelief and anger.
"A few of the guys were going to town but I was incredibly tired," he says.
"I was trying to rehydrate, I was cramping, everything was breaking down pretty badly. I was totally stuffed and a little bit unaware as to what was going on compared to how the other guys were seeing it.
"One of the administrators from the Australian [cricket] board came in to our room. He was in tears and he apologised to us. He was deeply sorry about what happened, saying it was embarrassing and unsportsmanlike. And after that, everything hit the fan."
Edgar went out for dinner that night with visiting Kiwi friends, unaware how things were kicking off on both sides of the Tasman.
Then New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon waded in to describe the Chappell brothers' actions as "an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow".
Channel Nine television commentary doyen Richie Benaud called the act "disgraceful" and "one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field".
And even the next day, Ian Chappell, who Greg took over the captaincy from, waded into the fallout with a stinging newspaper column which said: "Fair dinkum, Greg, how much pride do you sacrifice to win $33,000? Because, brother, you sure sacrificed a lot in front of a huge TV audience and 52,990 people at the MCG yesterday afternoon."
Trevor Chappell has in the past said he regrets what happened but has never apologised.
"Whether I am sorry or whether I am not is not going to change anything. It is not going to make any difference to them," he told the Telegraph last week.
"Focusing on negative events does not do your mental health or physical health any good."
Edgar, who played 39 tests and 64 ODIs for New Zealand between 1978 and 1986, says people still want to talk about it.
"In fact, someone asked me the other day, what would I have done if I had been facing the last ball?" he says.
"And I've never, ever thought about it all this time. But I think what Brian [McKechnie] did was probably the best demonstration of protest that anybody could ever do.
"I think I would've just kicked it, in disgust. I used to play soccer so I think I would've side-footed it to mid-wicket and tossed my bat."
Edgar doesn't reckon he would ever have tried to hit it for six.
"It would've been impossible," he says.
Some of the Australian players, including Doug Walters, claimed they used to practise exactly that - rolling the ball up their foot, giving it elevation, and hitting it out of the ground.
"But I thought, just go and ask Trevor … he said [the underarm ball] was dead straight and couldn't have been a better, directed bowl in anyone's career in a one-off moment," Edgar says.
"And he suggested it was going to hit the stumps, so if you put your foot in front of it, you're out lbw anyway. There's another question for the umpire … imagine that!"
Edgar, a few years ago, looked up World Series and McDonald's Cup games played at the MCG before that day and not one six had been hit.
He spent almost a decade from the early 2000s living in Australia and locals were still apologising to him for the underarm delivery.
But it didn't stop them having fun with it. Edgar joined a cycling club where they all had nicknames. His was UB (Underarm Bruce).
And Edgar believes that while it was an "unfortunate end" to a superb match, it turned out to be a "fortuitous moment for cricket" in New Zealand.
"The interest in New Zealand cricket that came about purely from that incident for the next 5-10 years was amazing. People became interested in cricket, because it was being talked about," Edgar says.
"At the end of the day, we can thank Greg Chappell. People debate whether he was right or wrong, but regardless of that – and I like Greg, he's a friend, and he did what he did – and I still say to this day, without him doing what he did, we wouldn't have got the support for the game in New Zealand for the next 5-10 years, and the momentum that built up and leads to where we are today."
