Sibling rivalry: The need to trip up big brother to emerge from the shadows : The Tribune India

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Sibling rivalry: The need to trip up big brother to emerge from the shadows

MELBOURNE: Australia and New Zealand are bitter rivals.

Sibling rivalry: The need to trip up big brother to emerge from the shadows

Trevor Chappell



Rohit Mahajan

Melbourne, March 28

Australia and New Zealand are bitter rivals. Bickering cousins or quarrelsome siblings — these are the terms used to describe the rivalry between the two nations. But it’s not anger that forms the bedrock of the rivalry — it’s just tussle of the smaller nation to get out of the shadow of the big one. It’s a struggle to be treated as an equal.

“We’re probably seen as the little brothers from across the ditch,” Tim Southee, the New Zealander pace bowler, said yesterday. He added: “There is a massive rivalry in whatever sport you play in New Zealand and you always want to have one up over, I guess, the big brothers.” This rivalry is, to emphasise, not characterised by hatred. But there is intensity. Sometimes, there is bitterness.

“The rivalry has been bitter at different times, but it’s a great rivalry between the two countries. It’s a good thing, because it’s good to have that competition,” Trevor Chappell of Australian cricket’s famous Chappell family told The Tribune.

Trevor Chappell was the man who, in 1981, outraged New Zealand into a stage of cricketing unity. At the MCG in February 1981, he bowled an underarm ball along the pitch when New Zealand needed six runs to tie their ODI game. This was done at the exhortation of his brother and captain, Greg Chappell.

The indignation and the anger that followed in New Zealand painted Trevor a villain, but the fact is that the underarm delivery was not outlawed until after this incident. The other fallout was that it united the whole of New Zealand behind their cricket team; it was not a usual occurrence in cricket, though rugby had enjoyed uniform and widespread support in that nation.

No anger

Chappell says that that incident never caused anger between the players. “You know, while the fans reacted angrily, the New Zealand cricketers never became angry over it,” he says. “They accepted it remarkably calmly at the time. Brian McKechnie, the man I bowled that ball to... I’ve met him many times on different occasions, in many functions. He’s a terrific fellow, and he doesn’t resent that incident.”

Chappell says that the underarm ball united New Zealand behind its cricketers. “For the first time ever, the whole nation was behind the team,” Chappell says. “People have supported their rugby team at most times, but this incident boosted cricket because it united people for cricket as well!”

Little brother

New Zealand don’t get the respect they deserve — and crave — from Australia. “I don’t think Australia, the administrative side, has always respected New Zealand cricket,” says Chappell. “I talk of the early days of Test cricket in New Zealand. England toured New Zealand much more often than Australia did. It was not until the late 1960s or 1970s that Australia sent their main team to New Zealand... Earlier, they used to send their A teams.”

Chappell says the Aussie players also didn’t prefer to play in New Zealand. “We used to go to play in the county or club cricket in England, to get used to different conditions,” he says. “But similar conditions were present only a few hundred miles away... And we traditionally haven’t used those conditions.”

So, says Chappell, there’s a feeling in New Zealand that they’re not respected by Australia.

“There’s been that lack of respect, and there’s also this inferiority complex they (New Zealand) might have,” says Chappell. “Tim Southee said the other day that they were like the little brother... So the Kiwis are trying to prove themselves all the time. They love nothing better than to beat Australia at anything!”

Aggressive Aussie fans

Most neutral fans of cricket seem to support New Zealand for tomorrow’s final. It’s because New Zealand are underdogs, and because the Australians are a bit brash and smug about their superiority and past glories.

“Yes, generally the Australian fans are quite aggressive in their support for their team,” says Chappell. “They’re generally aggressive to anyone, and it’s not just New Zealand that they’re aggressive to. But maybe because of the general rivalry of the nations, this is felt more strongly by the New Zealanders. But yes, fortunately or unfortunately, a lot of the Australians are like that.”

Nearly 100 years ago, on April 25, 1915, the two nations launched their first major military action at Gallipoli, during the first World War. That day is commemorated as Anzac Day. It signifies the unity of Australia and New Zealand — Anzac is the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

It’s an Anzac final tomorrow. There will be bitterness, there will be fierceness, there will be intensity. But no blood will be spilt. It’s practically the same blood, the blood of brothers.

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