1981: The underarm incident

As the third one day match of the World Series finals drew to a conclusion, the crowd of 52,990 inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground may have been excused for wondering what was going off out there. One thing was clear. The two teams involved were evenly matched; tied at 1-1 in the best of five series, the latest Australia and New Zealand contest was going down to the wire.

With three overs remaining, Australia looked well set. New Zealand, requiring 32 to surpass Australia’s 235/4 total, had potential match winners in Richard Hadlee and Ian Smith, yet with Dennis Lillee bowling the penultimate over, the wise money was on the hosts.

1980s sporting retirements

Nico Rosberg recently made the shock decision to retire from Formula One after winning the World Championship title. So this week I am taking a look back at some sporting retirements of the 1980s, including an England rugby union captain forced to quit the sport, a triple blow for the Australian cricket team, and a future England manager saying his goodbyes before leaving the scene Anneka Rice style.