First, The Butterfly Effect. From Wiki...
"In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state."
Also...
"In The Vocation of Man (1800), Johann Gottlieb Fichte says 'you could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby ... changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole'."
And...
"The idea that the death of one butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent historical events made its earliest known appearance in 'A Sound of Thunder', a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury. 'A Sound of Thunder' features time travel."
Go back in time, accidentally tread on a butterfly, travel back, everything you understood before could now be different.
Now, Trevor Chappell. From Wiki...
"Trevor Martin Chappell (born 12 October 1952) is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played three tests and 20 One-Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shield with New South Wales twice, and scored a century for Australia against India in the 1983 World Cup."
"His career was overshadowed, however, by an incident in 1981 when he bowled underarm to New Zealand cricketer Brian McKechnie to stop the batsman hitting a six."
"On 1st February 1981, Australia played New Zealand in a ODI, the third in the best-of-five final, 1980-81 World Series Cup, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
With one ball of the final over remaining, New Zealand required a six to tie. Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his bowler (and younger brother) Trevor Chappell, to deliver the last ball underarm, along the ground. Trevor Chappell did so, forcing McKechnie to play the ball defensively, meaning Australia won. This action, although legal at the time, was nevertheless widely perceived as being wholly against the traditional spirit of cricketing fair play."
Okay. If you could travel back in time (and space) to 1st February 1981 and persuade Trevor Chappell not to bowl underarm, what would the Butterfly Effect of that action be?
I think you could persuade Trevor Chappell not to bowl underarm because a) I don't think he wanted to do it, b) his captain was also his brother - so he could plead to him on a different level to other teammates, c) his teammates (especially Rod Marsh the experienced wicket keeper) also didn't want him to do it, and d) the worst that could have happened had he bowled a normal delivery was McKechnie hitting a six for a tie.
"The outrage caused by the incident eventually led to an official amendment to the international laws of cricket to prevent it from occurring again."
This is the legacy of the incident, the underarm delivery wasn't against the laws of the game, but those laws were subsequently changed so it wouldn't happen again. If we assume Trevor Chappell ignores his brother and bowls a standard delivery, McKechnie hits it for one, two, three, four but not six, and Australia win, the world carries on turning regardless. However, underarm bowling remains legal to this day (*evil chuckle*).
How many more games of cricket take place before another captain thinks bowling underarm is the only option? It could happen tomorrow. It could decide an Ashes test series. It could decide a World Cup Final between India and Pakistan.
P.S. Only the 'Mankad' has come close to causing the same controversy as Trevor Chappell's action...
"Mulvantrai Himmatlal 'Vinoo' Mankad (12 April 1917 – 21 August 1978) was an Indian cricketer who appeared in 44 Test matches for India between 1946 and 1959. He was best known for his world record setting opening partnership of 413 runs with Pankaj Roy in 1956, a record that stood for 52 years, and for running out a batsman "backing up" at the non-striker's end. Mankading in cricket is named after him."
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