THE bowler of the most notorious delivery in Australian cricket history will feature as the 2015 Willowfest ambassador.
Trevor Chappell, who under instruction from Australian captain and older brother Greg bowled that infamous underarm ball to New Zealand’s Brian Mckechnie in 1981, has been secured by Willowfest to act as ambassador for the December tournament.
“It’s fantastic,” Willowfest president Anthony Telfer said about the coup.
“We’re pretty happy to get someone like a Chappell brother.”
Telfer said he had played under Chappell in the late eighties when the latter was coach at North Sydney.
The youngest of the famous Chappell brothers, Trevor was born in Adelaide and attended Prince Alfred College.
As a schoolboy cricketer he met the high standards set for him by his brothers Ian and Greg and their grandfather, former Australian test captain of the 1930s Victor Richardson.
He made his First-Class debut for South Australia in the 1972-73 season and in 1977 signed to play World Series Cricket with his brothers.
Chappell was selected in the Australian One Day International side at the start of the summer of 1980-81, the side he played for when the underarm incident occurred.
Chappell played three Test matches for Australia, all during the 1981 Ashes, for 79 runs with a high score of 27 in 161 minutes.
While he had only moderate success in his three Tests, he was more of a success in limited overs cricket where he scored 110 for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup, although he never played for Australia again after that tournament.
Post-cricket he had a spell as Sri-Lanka’s fielding coach and a stint as head coach of Bangladesh.
Chappell will be the guest speaker at Willowfest’s presentations.
Telfer said teams are already registering for the popular event, with the carnival starting on December 27.
Credit: Sunraysia Daily
