Underarm bowling

The Disgraceful moment in Cricket History-Underarm bowling

In cricket, underarm bowling is as old as the sport itself. Until the appearance of the roundarm style in the first half of the 19th Century, bowling was performed in the same way as in bowls, the ball being delivered with the hand below the waist. Bowls may well be an older game than cricket and it is possible (although unlikely) that cricket was derived from bowls by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball reaching its target by hitting it away, though bowling per se continued as in bowls.

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Definition

Technically speaking, an underarm delivery is one in which the bowler's hand does not rise above the level of the waist. The Laws of Cricket now (2000 Code) declare that an underarm delivery is illegal unless otherwise agreed before the match ^[1].

A delivery is a no ball if it bounces more than twice before passing the popping crease: an underarm delivery cannot be performed rolling along the ground. A pitched underarm delivery is a good ball, providing it only pitches once, and providing the opposing captain has agreed beforehand that the style may be used. It is unlikely that any bowler would reintroduce the style, given modern pitch conditions

History

For centuries, bowling was often performed exactly as in bowls because the ball was rolled or skimmed along the ground. The bowlers may have used variations in pace but the basic action was essentially the same. There are surviving illustrations from the first half of the eighteenth century which depict the bowler with one knee bent fo

rward and his bo

wling hand close to the ground, while the ball trundles (if slow) or skims (if quick) towards a batsman armed with a bat shaped something like a large hockey stick and guarding a two-stump wicket.

Cricket's first great bowling revolution occurred probably in the 1760s when bowlers started to pitch the ball instead of rolling it. The pitched delivery was established by 1772 when detailed scorecards became commonplace and the straight bat replaced the cur

ved one at about that time. There is no doubt that the straight bat was introduced to contest the pitched delivery and it is possible that the inventor of the straight bat was the famous John Small of Hambledon.

The 1760s are one of cricket's "Dark Ages"; a good

deal more is known about the decades 1731-1750 than of 1751-1770. This has largely to do with the impact of the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 which not only claimed the sport's manpower but also its patr

onage. Pitching may have begun during that period but little is known about it for it seems to have been introduced and widely accepted without the huge controversies that surrounded the later implementations of roundarm and overarm.

It is interesting that the first known codification of the Laws of Cricket, created by the London Cricket Club in 1744, makes no mention of prescribed bowling action and does not say the ball must be delivered at ground level, which suggests a pitched delivery would not be illegal. The rules for bowlers in the 1744 Laws focus on the position of the hind foot during delivery (i.e., it had to be behind the bowling crease) and overstepping is the only specified cause for calling a no ball. The umpires were granted "discretion" and s

o presumably would c

all no ball if, say, a ball was thrown by the bowler.

One of the first great bowlers to employ the pitched delivery to good effect was Edward "Lumpy" Stevens of Chertsey and Surrey. There is a surviving rhyme about him to the effect that "honest Lumpy did allow he ne'er would pitch but o'er a brow". In those days, the leading bowler on each side had choice of precisely where the wickets would be placed and Lumpy was adept at finding a spot where the turf was uneven on a good length so that

he could use his repertoire of shooters, twisters and risers. Lumpy was a true professional who studied the arts and crafts of the game to seek continuous improvement as a bowler. He is known to have observed the flight of the ball and experimented for long hours with variations of line, length and speed of delivery until he had mastered the art of pitching.

Other great bowlers of the late 18th century were Thomas Brett and David Harris, both of Hambledon. They were fast bowlers whereas Lump

y relied on variet

y of pace. An interesting bowler of the time was Lamborn who spun the ball in an unorthodox fashion and may have been the "original leg spinner".

Underarm bowling was effective while pitch conditions were difficult for batsmen due to being uneven and uncovered. In time, especially after the opening of Lord's

and the development of groundsmanship, pitches began to improve and batsmen were able to play longer innings than formerly. In the 1780s and 1790s, one of the best batsmen around was Tom Walker, who was also a very useful slow bowler. Walker was another improviser like Lumpy and he began to experiment by bowling with his hand away from his body. It is not clear how high he raised his hand but it could have been waist height. He was accused of "jerking" the ball and so delivering it in an unfair and improper manner. He was suitably censured for his trouble and was forced to return to his normal underarm lobs, but he had sown the seeds of bowling's next revolution.

This was roundarm, so-called because the hand is held out from the body (i.

e., between waist and shoulder height) at the point of delivery. The roundarm style was promoted successively by John Willes, William Lillywhite and Jem Broadbridge until it was finally legalised, amid furious controversy, in 1835 with an amendment to the rule in 1845.

Roundarm did not mean the end of underarm, which continued well into the overarm era that began in 1864. William Clarke, founder of the All England Eleven in 1845, remained a highly effective underarm bowler long after roundarm began. Others who sometimes bowled underarm into the overarm era were Jem Grundy and Jame

s Southerton.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, underarm had more or less disappeared and was rarely seen thereafter, although exceptions did occur. There were cases

where a bowler had been injured and so completed his over with underarms. In more controversial circumstances, there were instances of bowlers who had been no-balled for throwing who decided to bowl underarm in order to get through the over.

George Simpson-Hayward was an England hero of the 1909-10 series in South Africa with his underarm bowling. Reference books often refer to him as the "last great lob bowler", but other descriptions suggest he was a ferocious under-arm spinner of the ball, getting immense turn off the pitch through a fairly low trajectory, rather than being a true "lobster".

Underarm in the modern game

Underarm bowling became virtually extinct after the First World War. Trevor Molony, who represented Surrey in three matches in 1921, is considered as the last lob-bowler to play first class cricket primarily as a bowler. However, Gerald Brodribb in his book

on this subject lists about twenty-five instances since that time when underarm bowling was employed in first class matches. The list of bowlers who have tried this includes Hedley Verity, Jack Iverson, Mike Brearley, George Brown, Wilfred Wooller, Maharaja of Patiala and Fred Root.

Bowlers have employed underarm bowling for a variety of reasons. When the Trinidadian cricketer Syed Mubarak Ali was no-balled

30 times for throwing in a match against Barbados in 1942, he resorted to rolling the ball along to avoid more no-balls. In similar circumstances, South African bowler Geoff Griffin did the same in an exhibition match that followed the Test against England at Lord's in 1960, where he had already been no-balled. As rain threatened to end the match between Victoria and MCC in 1928-29, the MCC bowler Fred Barratt rolled the ball along to allow Bill Woodfull to score a four to complete his hundred and Victori

a to win.[1] But most of the modern underarm bowlers did it to register some form of protest.

Graeme Fowler in his book Fox on the run reco

rds that Dilip Vengsarkar bowled an over of lobs in the match between West Zone and England in 1984-85 when the latter delayed their declaration [2]. When Lancashire batted on for too long against Oxford University at Oxford in 1990, Phil Gerrans, an Australian playing for Oxford, bowled a ball under

arm [3]. Since he had not informed the umpire of the change of action, he was no-balled. These appear to be the last instances of underarm bowling in first class cricket.

1981 Incident

An infamous incident in a game of cricket, involving an underarm delivery occurred on February 1, 1981 when Australia was playing New Zealand in a One Day International, the third of five matches in the final of the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

^[1]

Events leading up to delivery

In the February 1981 underarm delivery incident, the batsman at the non-striker's end, Bruce Edgar, was on 102 not out at the time and his innings has been called "the most overlooked century of all time".^{[citation needed]}

The match had earlier controversy: in the Australian innings, Martin Snedden took a spectacular low outfield catch off the batting of Greg Chappell when he was on 52 ^[2]. It was disallowed by the umpires, although TV replays clearly showed it was a clean catch. Some commentators believed Chappell should have taken Snedden's word that the catch was good. Chappell went on to score 90, before he was caught by Bruce Edgar in similar fashion. This time Chappell walked.

In the confusion, one of the fielders (Dennis Lillee) forgot to walk into place, meaning that the underarm ball was technically a no-ball, because Australia had one too many fielders outside the field restriction line.^[3]

The delivery

New Zealand needed six runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. The Australian captain (Greg Chappell) ordered the bowler (his brother, Trevor Chappell) to bowl underarm: rolling the ball along the ground to avoid the possibility that the No. 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian McKechnie) would score a six from the last ball to tie the match.

Immediate reaction

Australia won the game, but boos were heard from the crowd and the New Zealand batsmen marched off in disgust. Since that day the underarm bowling incident has been a source of discussion, both heated and jocular, between Australians and New Zealanders.

International reaction

It was described as "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket" by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rob Muldoon, who also said that "It was an act of cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow".

Reaction in Australia

Even the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, called the act "contrary to the traditions of the game". Commentating for Channel 9 at the time, Richie Benaud described the act as "disgraceful" and called it "one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field".

Brian McKechnie bears no ill will over the incident^[4] but both Chappell brothers have publicly stated their embarrassment over the incident and, over 25 years later, are still reluctant to discuss it. Unfortunately for Trevor Chappell, this incident is what he is best remembered for.^[5]

Legacy

As a direct result of the incident, underarm bowling was banned in limited overs cricket by the International Cricket Council as not within the spirit of the game.

New Zealand cricketer Warren Lees recounted the underarm incident on New Zealand's 20/20 current-affairs show, on Thursday 17 February 2005. He said for long after the affair there was silence in the dressing room, which was broken suddenly and unexpectedly by fellow player Mark Burgess smashing a tea cup.

On February 17, 2005, 24 years after the original underarm delivery, Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath light-heartedly revisited the incident in the first ever Twenty20 international, played between Australia and New Zealand. In the last over of the match, a grinning McGrath pretended to bowl an underarm delivery to Kyle Mills which prompted New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden to produce a mock red card. This drew a large reception from the crowd, which was mostly made up of New Zealand fans, and echoed the good spirits in which the whole game had been played.