OMG that’s scandalous!
I was pointed in the direction of a list of the top 10 strange sports scandals, and I thought I would have a go at putting together a list of my personal top 5 scandals that I’m familiar with. Notice I said ‘familiar with?’ I get annoyed when the likes of ESPN, Sports Illustrated, etc. put out these lists of ‘top sporting moments ever’ and it’s all American-related with hardly anything from overseas. So I’m going to be a hypocrite right now and make a list of Top 5 scandals that I, as an Australian, am familiar with.
#5 John Hopoate Getting a Little Too Personal - Sticking your finger in your opponent’s ring-hole to put them off their game is hardly sporting - to say the least.
This shoud not be a part of any sport
#4 Phar Lap’s Death in America - Australia’s favourite racehorse ever (forget the fact that he was a New Zealand horse) ends up dead before he can race America’s finest racehorse of the time - conspiracy?
#3 The Super League War - Rupert Murdoch divides Australian Rugby League into two competitions with players choosing sides between the established Australian Rugby League and the new Super League competition. Players signed huge playing and loyalty contracts, which had never been seen before in the sport. The competition only lasted one season before both factions rejoined to create the National Rugby League - winning fan support back.
#2 Trevor Chappell’s Underarm Delivery - Australia’s least memorable sporting moment. With the New Zealand cricket team needing 6 runs to win, Australian Captain, Greg Chappell, orders his little brother, Trevor Chappell, to roll the ball along the wicket, essentially denying New Zealand the chance to win and triggering trans-tasman hostilities that still exist to this day. The New Zealand Prime Minister at the time remarked “It was an act of cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow.”
sJJ3wDv1o1M
Notice Rod Marsh shaking his head - even Australian’s weren’t happy.
#1 Bodyline - Given the fact that it is in an Australian’s genetic make-up to hate the English, if there is one single incident that can be pointed to for a reason why, it would be Bodyline. They devised a gameplan to deter Sir Donald Bradman’s ability to score runs by bowling shoulder high deliveries every ball and placing fielders in the appropriate positions to take catches.
A typical field setting for Bodyline bowling
This led to a lot of bad blood between the Australian and English teams, with several Australian players being struck by the cricket ball - one player was left unconcious after being struck in the temple. An excellent write up on Bodyline can be found here.
I hate to be a nit picker, but with the underarm, we actually needed 6 runs to tie the match.
Which makes it even more sad that they rolled that thing down.
Definitely not the best moment in Australia’s sporting history. Jim pointed out that he thought Bodyline would have been a pretty good tactic had Australia thought of it first. I pointed out that we didn’t and becuase of that, it was a bloody disgrace!