On this day, 1969, Australian wicketkeeper Ray Jordon cheated during a match in Bangalore.
The incident brought out a side of Ian Chappell that is not often talked about.
A word or two about that tour of India. Australia won the Test series 3-1.
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They have only once since then, in 2004-05.
The tour was marred by multiple instances of unrest, at Bombay, Calcutta, and Bangalore.
These incidents can wait for later threads.
The Bangalore match was against South Zone.
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Australia were 2-1 up in the Test series, but South Zone were always a tough opposition.
A brief recap of the match, first.
South Zone declared on 239/9 before unleashing a spin attack to match any Test match attack of the era: Chandra, Prasanna, Venkat, and VV Kumar.
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The Australians were bowled out for 195. Lawry scored 120 of these.
South Zone set Australia a target of 200 in 170 minutes.
The Australians then collapsed against Prasanna (14-10-11-6).
Reduced to 53/8, they finished on 90/8. Lawry was obviously unbeaten.
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Play was called off four minutes before time due to stone-pelting, followed by lathi-charge.
The incident took place on the second morning.
Prasanna and Venkat were trying to rescue South Zone from 175 for 7.
Connolly was bowling to Prasanna.
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Taber had been rested.
Jordon, his replacement for the match, was standing up to the stumps.
Chappell had a full view of what happened.
The ball passed Prasanna's bat and the stumps. Then the off-stump was knocked *forward*, defying a law or two of physics.
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Prasanna, realising what had happened, initially refused to leave.
Jordon sledged Prasanna until he walked way back.
This was just a tour match, but Chappell did not forget the incident.
Australia were humiliated 0-4 in South Africa later that season.
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After being thrashed in Cape Town and Durban, Lawry considered replacing the out-of-form Taber with Jordon.
Lawry had a discussion with vice-captain Chappell, his deputy.
The response was clear:
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"You are the captain and you can pick whatever team you like, but if you are going to pick Ray Jordon in the Australian cricket team, please don't consider me for selection. I'm not available."
Jordon never played a Test. His career for Victoria got over a season later.
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Cricket Australia has discussed switching broadcast rights back to Channel 9.
I was obviously excited. Then @rickeyrecricket asked me why a some of us found the news exciting.
It is difficult to explain, but there is no harm trying.
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And I have a feeling that a lot of 1980s cricket fans will agree.
Let me first explain what watching cricket on Doordarshan used to be like – when the antenna worked, anyway.
There was one channel, where everything had to be crammed in.
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They used to interrupt coverage abruptly for news, University Grants Commission programmes, live telecast of the Prime Minister inaugurating random institutes, and more.
But we still waited, because we knew that this was all we were going to get.
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Bill O'Reilly was arguably the greatest leg-spinner until Shane Warne arrived.
He also fought a few battles with Don Bradman, both on and off the field – though neither lost professional respect for the other.
That, we know.
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Not as well-known is a 21st-century war cricket fans fought on his behalf.
There are several Bill O'Reillys, six of them reasonably famous. You can see the list here, on the disambiguation page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O…
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In 2005, a Wikipedia user tried to push a motion to make the political commentator the default page.