ABSTRACT
The underarm incident continues to serve as an almost universal signifier in Australian-New Zealand sporting contacts. Some of the metaphors and social translations are humorous, others filled with a more serious sense of national outrage at the triumph of legal formalism over cricket’s (and society’s) higher values. The manager of the New Zealand blind cricket team complained that Australia had an advantage in such competitions because all bowling was underarm. During a One-Day match played at Hobart, the Kiwi PM’s Christmas Party focused on the television coverage of the game.4 As Australia approached the New Zealand total and required two runs off the last ball to win
…underarm bowling jokes swept the room. New Zealanders have not forgotten Trevor Chappell's final, unplayable ball on his brother Greg’s orders, that ended a 1981 Melbourne one-day final so sourly, denying New Zealand a chancy six off the last ball.5
