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The 1970s

Cricket controversies from 1970 to 1979

25 incidents documented

Richards 138* and Collis King 86 — 1979 World Cup Final

West Indies vs England

23 June 1979

Vivian Richards' 138 not out off 157 balls and Collis King's 86 from 66 balls in a 139-run fifth-wicket partnership took West Indies to 286/9 in the 1979 Prudential World Cup final at Lord's. England, in reply, were dismissed for 194 — the chase undone by the slow-batting opening pair of Geoffrey Boycott (57 from 105 balls) and Mike Brearley (64 from 130). West Indies retained the World Cup with a 92-run victory.

#Vivian Richards#Collis King#1979 World Cup

Dennis Lillee's Aluminium Bat Controversy

Australia vs England

15 December 1979

Dennis Lillee used an aluminium bat that damaged the ball. England captain Mike Brearley complained, leading to a 10-minute standoff as Lillee refused to change bats.

#lillee#aluminium bat#brearley

Dennis Lillee's Aluminium Bat Standoff

Australia vs England

1979-12-15

Dennis Lillee walked out to bat with an aluminium 'Combat' bat, sparking a 10-minute standoff when England captain Mike Brearley complained it was damaging the ball.

#dennis-lillee#aluminium-bat#perth

The Centenary Test — Australia vs England, MCG, March 1977

Australia vs England

12-17 March 1977

The Centenary Test at the MCG in March 1977 commemorated 100 years since the first Test match at the same venue. Australia won by 45 runs — exactly the same margin as the 1877 result. Dennis Lillee took 6/26 and 5/139 across the two innings; Derek Randall made 174 in England's second-innings chase of 463; over 200 surviving Australian and English Test cricketers attended a celebration that became part of cricket's institutional memory.

#Centenary Test#1977#MCG

Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket Revolution

Multiple (WSC vs Establishment Cricket)

24 November 1977

Media mogul Kerry Packer signed 51 of the world's best cricketers to a rival competition after being denied TV broadcast rights, fundamentally transforming professional cricket.

#kerry packer#world series cricket#wsc

India Chase 406 — Port of Spain, April 1976

India vs West Indies

7-12 April 1976

India chased down 403 to win at Port of Spain in April 1976, finishing on 406/4 to claim the third Test by six wickets — the second-highest successful fourth-innings chase in Test history at the time, after only Bradman's 1948 Invincibles. Gavaskar 102, Mohinder Amarnath 85, Gundappa Vishwanath 112, and Brijesh Patel 49 not out drove the chase across the final two days against a four-spinner West Indian attack. The result so embarrassed Clive Lloyd that, three weeks later at Kingston, he selected four genuine fast bowlers — the moment generally identified as the start of the West Indian pace strategy of the next two decades.

#India#West Indies#fourth innings chase

Vivian Richards — 1,710 Test Runs in a Calendar Year, 1976

West Indies (vs Australia, India, England)

January-December 1976

Vivian Richards scored 1,710 runs in eleven Tests in 1976 at an average of 90.00, with seven centuries — a record that stood for thirty years until Mohammad Yousuf's 1,788 in 2006. The aggregate included 556 in Australia, 384 in the Caribbean against India, and 829 against England in four Tests, capped by 291 at the Oval. Richards missed the Lord's Test of the English summer with glandular fever; the seven centuries broke Garry Sobers' previous record of six in a calendar year.

#Vivian Richards#1976#calendar year record

Bedi's Sabina Park Protest — India's Effective Forfeit, April 1976

India vs West Indies

21-25 April 1976

At Sabina Park in April 1976, three weeks after India's chase of 406 at Port of Spain, Bishan Bedi declared India's first innings closed at 306/6 and effectively forfeited the second at 97 — five Indian batsmen recorded as "absent hurt" — in protest at what he considered intimidatory short-pitched bowling. Anshuman Gaekwad was hit behind the ear and hospitalised, Brijesh Patel struck in the mouth, and Vishwanath's finger broken. It was Clive Lloyd's first Test as captain with four genuine fast bowlers — Roberts, Holding, Daniel and Holder — and the moment is generally identified as the start of the West Indian pace strategy of the next two decades.

#Bishan Bedi#Sabina Park#Anshuman Gaekwad

Lance Gibbs — 309 Test Wickets, Passes Trueman, Melbourne 1976

Australia vs West Indies

31 January - 5 February 1976

Lance Gibbs took his 309th Test wicket — Gary Gilmour caught Fredericks — in the sixth Test of the 1975-76 series at the MCG, passing Fred Trueman's previous record of 307 and becoming the first spinner to lead the all-time Test wicket-takers' list. The wicket was his last in international cricket. He retired at the end of the tour, holding the record until Dennis Lillee passed him in December 1981.

#Lance Gibbs#309 wickets#Fred Trueman

Tony Greig's 'Grovel' Comment — West Indies Fury 1976

England vs West Indies

3 June 1976

Tony Greig infamously said he intended to make the West Indies 'grovel,' a comment with racial undertones that provoked an incredible West Indian response.

#greig#grovel#west indies

The First Cricket World Cup — Lord's, 1975 Final, West Indies vs Australia

West Indies vs Australia

21 June 1975

The first Cricket World Cup — the Prudential World Cup of 1975 — culminated in a 60-overs-a-side final at Lord's on 21 June, in which West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs. Clive Lloyd's 102 from 85 balls anchored West Indies' 291/8; Vivian Richards ran out three Australian batters, including the Chappell brothers; Australia were dismissed for 274 in 58.4 overs. The match finished after 8.43 pm under summer twilight and crowned West Indies as the inaugural one-day champions.

#1975 World Cup#World Cup#Clive Lloyd

Michael Angelow — First Lord's Streaker, 1975 Ashes

England vs Australia

4 August 1975

On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.

#Michael Angelow#streaker#Lord's

Roy Fredericks — 169 in 145 Balls, Perth 1975

Australia vs West Indies

12-16 December 1975

Roy Fredericks made 169 from 145 balls at the WACA in December 1975, opening the West Indian innings against Lillee and Thomson at their fastest. He hooked the second ball of the innings, from Lillee, for six. His hundred came in 71 balls and remains, alongside Adam Gilchrist's 57-ball century at the same ground in 2006, among the fastest in WACA Test history. Lindsay Hassett, broadcasting on the ABC, called it "the greatest innings I have seen in Australia". West Indies won by an innings and 87 runs.

#Roy Fredericks#WACA#Lillee

Murray and Roberts Steal It — West Indies Beat Pakistan, 1975 World Cup

West Indies vs Pakistan

11 June 1975

At Edgbaston on 11 June 1975, West Indies — chasing 267 to beat Pakistan in the first World Cup — fell to 203/9 with sixteen overs left and were within one wicket of an exit from a tournament they would, ten days later, win. Deryck Murray (61 not out) and Andy Roberts (24 not out) added 64 for the unbroken last wicket; West Indies won by one wicket with two balls remaining. The match is the first acknowledged thriller in World Cup history and is the moment without which the 1975 tournament has no Caribbean ending.

#1975 World Cup#Deryck Murray#Andy Roberts

Lillee and Thomson Destroy England — 1974-75 Ashes

Australia vs England

November 1974 - February 1975

Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson together took 58 wickets in the 1974-75 Ashes, intimidating Mike Denness's England side into a 4-1 series defeat. Thomson's slingshot action — peaked at speeds estimated above 95 mph in primitive on-field measurements — and Lillee's mature pace and cut produced one of the most one-sided fast-bowling assaults in Ashes history. Five England batters were forced to retire hurt across the series; Denness dropped himself for the fourth Test.

#Dennis Lillee#Jeff Thomson#1974-75 Ashes

Chappell Brothers — Twin Centuries Each at Wellington, 1974

Australia vs New Zealand

1-6 March 1974

At the Basin Reserve in March 1974, Greg Chappell made 247 not out and 133, and his elder brother Ian Chappell made 145 and 121 — the only instance in Test history of two brothers each scoring a hundred in both innings of the same match. Greg's 380 runs in the Test stood as the world record for runs by a player in one Test until Graham Gooch's 333 and 123 against India at Lord's in July 1990.

#Greg Chappell#Ian Chappell#twin centuries

Bob Massie's 16/137 on Test Debut — Lord's, 1972 Ashes

England vs Australia

22-26 June 1972

Western Australian seam bowler Bob Massie took 16 wickets for 137 runs on Test debut at Lord's in June 1972 — 8/84 in the first innings and 8/53 in the second — bowling Australia to an eight-wicket win in the second Ashes Test. The figures are the second-best match haul in Test history (Jim Laker's 19/90 remains the standard) and remain unsurpassed for a debutant.

#Bob Massie#Australia#1972 Ashes

The First-Ever ODI — Australia vs England, MCG, 5 January 1971

Australia vs England

5 January 1971

The first one-day international in cricket history was played at the MCG on 5 January 1971 as a hastily arranged consolation after the third Ashes Test was washed out for the first three days. Played over 40 eight-ball overs a side, Australia won by five wickets, John Edrich top-scored with 82 for England, and an estimated crowd of more than 46,000 watched a fixture neither board had originally planned to stage.

#ODI#first ODI#1970-71 Ashes

Sunil Gavaskar's Debut Series — 774 Runs in West Indies, 1971

India vs West Indies

March-April 1971

Sunil Gavaskar made his Test debut for India in the West Indies in March 1971 and scored 774 runs in four Tests at an average of 154.80, a debut series aggregate that has not been beaten in the more than five decades since. He made centuries in three successive Tests and a double-century-plus-century pair at Port of Spain in the final match. India won the series 1-0 — their first ever rubber win in the Caribbean.

#Sunil Gavaskar#India#West Indies

Chandrasekhar's 6/38 at The Oval — India's First Series Win in England, 1971

England vs India

19-24 August 1971

Bhagwath Chandrasekhar took 6 for 38 in 18.1 overs as India bowled England out for 101 on the third day of the Oval Test in August 1971, setting up a four-wicket Indian victory that delivered the country's first ever Test series win in England. The 1971 calendar year, including the earlier Caribbean series win, marked the moment Indian cricket became a touring power.

#BS Chandrasekhar#India#England

John Snow 7/40 — England Regain the Ashes, Sydney 1971

Australia vs England

12-17 February 1971

England regained the Ashes after twelve years on 17 February 1971 at Sydney, winning the seventh Test by 62 runs to take the series 2-0. John Snow's 7/40 in the second innings was the defining performance, but the Test was equally remembered for the bouncer that felled Terry Jenner, the bottle-throwing crowd disturbance, and Ray Illingworth leading his team off the field — and for the Test debut, in the previous Adelaide match, of a 21-year-old Dennis Lillee who took 5/84.

#1970-71 Ashes#John Snow#Ray Illingworth

India's First Test Series Win in West Indies — 1971

India vs West Indies

February-April 1971

India won a Test series in the West Indies for the first time in their history in 1971, taking the five-Test series 1-0 with the second Test at Port of Spain decided by seven wickets. Dilip Sardesai's 642 runs and Sunil Gavaskar's 774 in four matches set up the win; Eknath Solkar held the lower order together; and the spin of Erapalli Prasanna and Salim Durani, with Durani dismissing Sobers and Lloyd in successive overs at Port of Spain, completed Ajit Wadekar's defining triumph as captain.

#India#West Indies#1971 series

Zaheer Abbas — 274 on First Test in England, Edgbaston 1971

Pakistan vs England

3-8 June 1971

Zaheer Abbas made 274 against England at Edgbaston in June 1971 in only the second Test of his career — and his first in England — batting for nine hours and ten minutes, hitting 38 fours, and taking Pakistan to 608/7 declared. The innings, second only to Hanif Mohammad's 337 in Pakistani Test history at the time, announced Zaheer as the most prolific accumulator of his generation and earned him selection as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1972.

#Zaheer Abbas#double century#Edgbaston

Political Boycotts of Cricket Tours — India and South Africa

South Africa vs Various (Cancelled Tours)

1 January 1971

India was among the first nations to sever cricketing ties with South Africa over apartheid, and the broader international boycott eventually led to South Africa's complete isolation from world cricket for 21 years.

#boycott#apartheid#south africa

Greg Chappell — Century on Test Debut, Perth 1970

Australia vs England

11-16 December 1970

Greg Chappell scored 108 on Test debut at the WACA in December 1970, in the first Test ever played at the Perth ground, becoming the sixth Australian to make a hundred in his first Test innings. Coming in at 5/107 against John Snow and Peter Lever, he added 219 with Ian Redpath for the sixth wicket and converted what had been an under-pressure innings into a position of safety on a debut day later judged the foundation of his Test career.

#Greg Chappell#Test debut#century on debut