Melbourne, currently home to some of the world’s best tennis players assembled for the Australian Open, was where it happened, 40 years ago to the day.

And it was sufficient to cause that doyen of commentators, Australia’s very own Richie Benaud, to announce on air: "It is one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field."

We are talking, of course, about the underarm delivery by Trevor Chappell of the last ball of the final over of Australia’s World Series Cup one-day match against New Zealand.

The rival nations had shared the first two matches in the best-of-five series and after a long and dramatic struggle in stifling conditions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the visiting side needed six off the last ball to tie the match.

But as the bowler walked back to his mark, his elder brother Greg, captaining Australia that day, walked towards him and reportedly asked: "How’s your underarm bowling?"

Chappell Jr responded that he had no idea, and was apparently told: “Well, you’re about to find out."

Umpires and batsmen were informed about the upcoming underarm delivery. Behind the stumps, wicket keeper Rod Marsh shook his head, clearly unhappy with what was going to happen.

Elder brother Ian, the former and longtime Australian captain who was also commentating on the match, instinctively shouted out: "No, Greg, you can’t do that!" when it became clear what was about to transpire, and the hugely experienced Test player maintained his critical line afterwards.

In passing on his instructions, the Australian captain appeared to mime the action required.

Chappell Jr then turned theory into practice as the august arena became a mass of whistles and consternation.          

Brian McKechnie, the receiving batsman, tapped the trundling ball away from its target before flinging away his bat in disgust.

As the Australian team made their sheepish exit from the pitch amidst the tumult, the New Zealand captain, Geoff Howarth, ran on to remonstrate with the two Australian umpires.

Observing this, Benaud suggested that Howarth’s mission had been prompted by his experience of playing for Surrey in English cricket, where the domestic Benson and Hedges Cup rules explicitly precluded underarm bowling.

But as Benaud pointed out, this rule did not apply in the Australian Benson and Hedges World Series Cup rules because the administrators had not put it in.

"I hope they put it in by tomorrow morning," said Benaud, "otherwise there will be a lot of criticism of what was a disgraceful performance out there today."

In fact, had the administrators added it to the rules at that very moment it would not have stemmed the tidal wave of criticism that was already rolling in.

The incident provoked the New Zealand Prime Minister of the time, Robert Muldoon, to describe it as "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket".

Even the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was censorious, describing what had happened as "contrary to the traditions of the game".

Keith Miller, the legendary Australian all-rounder, commented: "Yesterday one-day cricket died, and Greg Chappell should be buried with it". Sir Don Bradman remarked: "I am very disappointed at Australia’s win-at-all-costs attitude."

Summing up the day’s play, Benaud said the controversy had occurred because Chappell, who later maintained he had been overcome by the oppressive conditions and pressure of the match, had miscalculated the amount of times he had used his most effective bowler, Dennis Lillee, which meant he was not able to be deployed for the 50^th and final over.

"I think it was a disgraceful performance from a captain who got his sums wrong today, and I think it should never be permitted to happen again," Benaud said, before advancing to his final, withering comment.

After this incident the International Cricket Council amended the Laws of Cricket so underarm deliveries became illegal in one-day internationals, saying they were "not within the spirit of the game."

The phrase “simply not cricket" is an old and well-used one, although when one delves into the history of a game that has long prided itself for its sense of honour one can find the usual quota of lapses and abuses that have featured in almost every sport.

While the memory of the 1981 match against New Zealand remains a painful one for Australian cricket it pales beside that of the Ashes series of 1932-1933, when the visiting England side, captained by Douglas Jardine, ruthlessly employed what he described as "fast leg theory bowling" and what the wider world soon described with the term "bodyline".

Bradman had been majestic as Australia had been victorious in the previous series hosted by England, and something dramatic needed to happen if the latter team were to make an impact on foreign soil. Something had to be done about the Don.

To limit the opportunities for Bradman and his colleagues, the England captain asked his two fast bowlers, Nottinghamshire’s Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, to pitch the ball short and in line with the leg stump, so that it reared up into the body of the receiving batsman.

The tactic was brutally effective in a series that England won by four Tests to one.

Larwood took 10 wickets in the first Test, as the hosts lost by 10 wickets in Sydney, albeit with the unwell Bradman absent.

Australia’s captain, Bill Woodfull, apparently came under pressure to allow his bowlers to retaliate in kind for the second Test. He refused on principle.

The third Test in Adelaide witnessed the height of the controversy, as Woodfull was struck under the heart by a delivery from Larwood and was clearly in agony for several minutes.

Woodfull was eventually out for 22. When the England manager, Pelham Warner, visited the Australian dressing room to offer his sympathies, the Australian captain was reported to have rebuked him with the following words: "I don’t want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket. The other is making no attempt to do so."

The following day a delivery from Larwood, albeit a non-bodyline delivery, was mishit off the top edge by wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield and the ball flew up to hit him in the head, fracturing his skull. The Australian Board sent a letter to the English game’s administrators, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), accusing the English team of being unsportsmanlike. The MCC objected.

The reaction of the Australian crowd to Jardine’s new idea was one of swiftly rising outrage. During the Third Test there was jeering after many of the England deliveries, and police had to intervene to prevent a riot taking place at the Adelaide Oval. The reaction on the part of English players and followers of the game was, as one might expect, more ambivalent.

Gubby Allen, an amateur fast bowler who was a member of the touring side, refused to bowl the fast leg theory deliveries. Warner later made it clear that he did not care for the tactic - but he made no comment during the tour.

In the aftermath, the MCC passed a resolution that bodyline bowling breached the spirit of the game.

To no effect.

A year later, in 1935, the MCC decreed what was termed "direct attack" bowling was unfair - and it became illegal under the rules of the game.

There’s probably a message for us all here, could we but see it…