Greg Chappell defended

Press, 11 February 1981, Page 25

Greg Chappell defended

NZPA Singapore A Singapore sports writer today defended the Australian cricket captain. Greg. Chappell, and said that his critics were being hypocritical. Commenting on the furore raised by Chappell’s underarm” tactic in the cne-day international between Australia and New Zealand, a Singapore Sunday Times cricket writer, Ramsay Ziegelaar, said: Greg did not achieve victory through unfair means, but through a rule which should have been abolished years ago. He showed courage and vision in using it.” Ziegelaar said: “After ail, in sport today, it is the winner that counts. There arc no financial rewards or accolades for good losers.” ‘‘That age-old adage ‘it matters not if you won or lost but how you played the game’ no longer applies because sports fans today have no time for losers.” He also asked whether the former England test skipper, Tony Greig, who, writing in a Sydney newspaper, said that Chappell should be stripped of his captaincy, was in any

position to pass judgment. “Has he forgotten the Kallicharran incident which occurred almost seven years ago in the West Indies and nearly started a riot?” Greig was then captain of the England team playing the West Indies in a test match. Kallicharran was at the bowler’s end in sparkling form, having just tcompleted his ryThe last ball of the day was bowled, and after the batsman played it down, Kallicharran walke< towards the pavilion before the umpire called over. One of thu fielders broke the stumps at the bowler’s end, and Greig appealed for run out “Kallicharran was ruled out and all hell broke loose,” said Ziegelaar. The West Indian fans were in a frenzy and refused to leave the ground until the decision was reversed, which it finally was. “Greig had acted according to the rules of the game. Kallicharran had no ’ght to leave the field until the umpire had called over. However, the overzealouj Greig, in his chase for victory, had failed to uphold the spirit of the game.”