The Most Undignified Incident in Cricket

Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad; Australia v Pakistan, Perth 81-82


Combative, abrasive and among the greatest players of their generation, Lillee and Miandad could have been two peas from the same pod. Instead they developed into the bitterest of adversaries, and at Perth in November 1981 they became embroiled in what Wisden described as "one of the most undignified incidents in Test history". The blame, by common consent, lay with Lillee, although naturally each man offered a different version of events. The eyewitness account was that Miandad set off for a single, Lillee stepped into his path, and after a tangle of limbs and insults, the two were caught on camera primed for a full-on scrap - Lillee with his fist raised like a prize fighter, Miandad with his bat coiled like a cobra. Tony Crafter, the umpire, was a brave man to intervene. Lillee was fined Aus$200, later reduced to $120 plus a two-match ban.