There’s a good discussion on the cricket website Cricinfo about sportsmen being caught in embarrassing photos they would rather forget.
The most recent example is former England cricket captain Mike Atherton shaking hands with Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe in 1996.
England lost that match, but not for that reason Atherton regrets the occasion and his “deferential pose” in the photograph.
Cricinfo compared it with the picture of England’s 1936 Olympic soccer team giving Adolf Hitler a Nazi salute during the Berlin games.
I bet none of those players were proud of what they did afterwards.
For Australians, probably our darkest sporting moment is this one:
New Zealand needed six runs to win from the final ball in a match against Australia at Melbourne in 1981.
Aussie captain Greg Chappell asked his brother Trevor to bowl the final ball underarm. It was within the laws of the game at that time, but considered outside the spirit of the game.
Underarm bowling has since been banned in one-day international cricket.
Twitter: james_guthrie
says:
Even worse, NZ needed six runs to *draw* the match. Australia couldn’t lose.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
Thanks for the correction. But why didn’t McKechnie stride down the wicket to get out of lbw range, kick the ball up with his boot, and smack it over the fence?