Trevor Chappell rolls cricket’s most infamous ball along the ground to New Zealand’s Brian McKechnie. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
“We were waiting for the countdown, in the Summer of ’81”. Well, that’s what Mondo Rock were doing, anyway, in that well-known track off their “Chemistry” album.
And we in the Burt family, meanwhile, were counting down the days until we were at the MCG watching Australia play New Zealand in the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup.
My mum and dad had bought tickets for us to go and the excitement of actually seeing Australia play cricket in the flesh was palpable.
We lived in Darnum at the time, a small village east of Warragul. Its most famous one-time resident was Gary Ayres, later a legendary Hawthorn premiership defender and dual Norm Smith medallist. At the time, he was still an up-and-coming wingman.
We used to catch the school bus with his sisters and his brother, Chris, whom I was pretty intimidated by knowing his big brother was a footy star and that maybe he might get me in the headlock for the slightest reason.
I remember him busting me staring at him once, for which I earned a: “What are you lookin’ at, dickhead?” I quickly looked away as I wasn’t up for Gary Ayres’ brother belting me up.
Being 1981, Dad phoned BASS, the main ticket outlet of the time, and sat on hold until he got through and bought four tickets. In those days, the tickets would have been mailed to us, which was a thrill when they arrived.
Mum was busy making egg and lettuce and ham and cheese sandwiches, probably with Tip Top or Granny Davis white bread, and also filling the Aladdin thermos with coffee for our big day at the MCG. We were also on the promise of being able to get a can of Coke and a Pie if we behaved ourselves, a big treat back then.
So off we headed up the Princes Highway to Melbourne for our big day, my brother Dave and I singing along to “Come On Aussie Come On” by the Mojo Singers at the top of our lungs.
Australia and New Zealand were playing out quite the great rivalry at the time and the World Series Cup finals were tied at 1-1 going into this game at the “G”.
Both teams had solid line-ups with talent from the top order to tail-end, with players like All Rounder Lance Cairns, who had an unorthodox bowling action and a cavalier batting style that would see many a boundary and six hit.
He also wielded a bizarre baseball-style bat, too, among all the Gray Nicholls “Super Scoops”, Duncan Fearnley, SS Jumbos and Gun and Moore bats most of the best batsmen used.
The Kiwis had a solid opening pair in Bruce Edgar and John Wright, who would always get New Zealand off to a good start. Australia had an opening pair this day of Allan Border and Graeme Wood, “The Kamikaze Kid”, a but erratic West Australian, who had a habit of running himself or his partner out with erratic calling.
As for bowlers, Australia had a somewhat depleted list but still boasted the great, and probably the greatest Australian fast bowler of all, Dennis Lillee, coming towards the end of his career but still bowling at good pace.
There was Max Walker, nicknamed “Tangles” for his peculiar but effective bowling action, who was also coming to the end of his career. And there was an Australian newcomer, an all-rounder who bowled medium pace in Graham Beard from NSW, playing his first one-dayer after three Test appearances.
Skipper Greg Chappell would also bowl his slow medium-pacers and his brother Trevor also rolled his arm over with fairly non-threatening medium pace.
I loved Greg Chappell, a skilful bat who made it look effortless, especially on the on-side, where he made a lot of runs for Australia. But I really loved him after he whacked a streaker on the arse with his bat in New Zealand in 1977. Good times.
The Kiwis had a pretty solid bowling line-up in Martin Sneddon and Cairns and maybe the greatest all-rounder of them all in Richard Hadlee, now Sir Richard Hadlee. He was a player whose beautiful skills, villainous moustache and general air of arrogance many Australians despised, but would have loved to have had on our side.
Dad managed to get us great seats in the Southern Stand, shaded from the heat of a hot Melbourne summer day. We sat just above the infamous Bay 13 area where Esky after Esky was carried. Back in those days, there was a strict 24-can per person limit. You can’t be too careful…!
Our view was great, not right over the bowler’s arm at the Southern Stand end but just to the right towards the Punt Road end of the ground. Perfect.
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Chappell won the toss and elected to bat first, sending Border and Wood to the crease. AB, or “Pugsley” as some called him then, went cheaply, but Wood and Chappell went on to forge a solid partnership, pushing the score up to 150. This wasn’t without controversy, though.
On 52, Chappell belted a long shot to deep mid-wicket, where it appeared Snedden had taken a great catch low to the ground.
But Chappell wasn’t having any of it, and refused to walk. The umpires appeared not to have seen the catch, and Chappell was given not out. New Zealand captain Geoff Howarth was not a happy man at all, but in those days there was no video review system and the match went on.
Martin Snedden holds the ball aloft after picking up Greg Chappell, a catch controversially disallowed. Picture: FOX SPORTS
I remember the roar when the legendary Doug Walters walked onto the MCG, a much-loved character but more importantly a brilliant cricketer. Douggie had only made six before the 50 overs were up, and Australia had finished with 4/235.
Back then, 220 was a benchmark in one-dayers so Australia was in a very good position to win the third final and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five finals series.
In my mind, the lunch break was the highlight of the day. A bloke came out into the middle of the MCG with a dog and started throwing a Frisbee, which the dog, showing extraordinary skills, would duly catch to the delight of the crowd.
An impromptu cricket match started in the Southern Stand, too. A bloke right near us had a bat, and people were pelting ice at him, to which he would play a shot (each bit of ice on its merits, of course) with masterful skill. For a while, anyway…
This morphed into an all-out ice fight with chunks flying everywhere. It was a great laugh for a while until mum told us to duck down because the chunks were coming in fast and at all angles!
A poor young bloke in front of us copped one in the face and had a fat eye to which the St Johns Ambulance people had to attend. After a while the police had to sort it out and eventually the crowd settled down as the Kiwi opening pair of Edgar and Wright headed to the centre of the MCG.
The crowd weren’t having it, though.
“WE WANT THE DOG! WE WANT THE DOG!” was the chant around the stadium as the great Lillee marked out his run-up. It seemed the Frisbee-catching hound had won us all over and the cricket had become secondary.
As usual Wright and Edgar made a solid start, getting the score to 85 before Wright was out for a solid 44 off the bowling of Greg Chappell.
For the next hour or so, it seemed that we would cruise to victory, as Edgar was running out of batting partners at a steady rate. The runs were flowing, though probably not enough to get over the line. John Parker had other ideas for a little while, making a quick fire 24 before Lillee dismissed him.
By the final over, New Zealand still needed 15 runs to win. We had this in the bag. But Trevor Chappell was bowling the last over … Hang on, what? Greg had messed up his over calculations up and it turned out that Trevor had to bowl the last over due to Lillee and Walker having bowled their allotted 10.
Hadlee and Ian Smith made eight runs between them before being dismissed and with one ball to be bowled, Brian McKechnie strode to the crease. A big bloke, still built more like his former life as a rugby union All-Black than a Cricketer. I wouldn’t cross him.
Once again, Greg Chappell had other ideas. The Kiwis needed seven to win from the final delivery. They needed a six even to tie. But a long discussion went on at the bowler’s end, while we could see Rod Marsh shaking his head behind the batsman at the other end. What was happening?
And then it happened. Trevor Chappell rolled the ball (fairly straight, too) down the pitch to McKechnie, who blocked it and threw his bat away in anger. If there had been a short leg in place he’d have copped it in the head.
I looked at my dad and said: “Gee, Brian McKechnie isn’t happy, dad, what’s going on?” Dad, looking straight ahead in shock, said: “I have no idea mate, no idea.” Nor did seemingly anyone else at the MCG. Indeed, a stunned hush came over the place as Kiwi skipper Howarth steamed on to the ground demanding answers. Answers to this day he probably still scratches his head about.
Talk about history being made and emotions running high! That day had it all.
Personally, though, there was one significant and final conundrum remaining. Were mum and dad going to let us get some hot jam donuts for the car ride back to Darnum?
Good times.
