With New Zealand needing six off the last ball to tie the match in a 1981 ODI at the MCG, Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor to bowl the ball underarm — rolling it along the ground so it was physically impossible for Brian McKechnie to hit a six. It was technically legal at the time, but it was about as sporting as stealing candy from a baby, and about as popular as a skunk at a garden party.
Trevor Chappell, clearly uncomfortable with the instruction — his body language screamed "please don't make me do this" — rolled the ball along the pitch with all the enthusiasm of a man being forced to perform community service. McKechnie blocked it in disgust and then hurled his bat away in protest, the bat bouncing across the turf as a physical manifestation of every New Zealander's fury. The New Zealand team was furious. The crowd booed with the kind of sustained intensity that usually only accompanies political decisions and parking violations.
Even the Australian players looked embarrassed, their expressions suggesting they would rather have been anywhere else — a dentist's waiting room, a tax audit, literally any situation that didn't involve watching their captain instruct his brother to cheat in front of 50,000 people and a national television audience.
New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon called it "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket" and suggested it was "an act of true cowardice" — words that carried extra weight coming from a man not known for diplomatic understatement. Even Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser called it "contrary to the traditions of the game." Richie Benaud, commentating, called it "disgraceful." When both prime ministers and Richie Benaud agree something is wrong, it is very, very wrong.
The incident was so universally condemned that the laws were changed to ban underarm bowling in limited-overs cricket. The moment has been referenced in every trans-Tasman cricket match since, and New Zealand fans have never let Australia forget it. Forty-plus years later, it remains New Zealand's most effective sledge against Australia — no comeback required, just two words: "underarm" and a meaningful look.