8 most disgraceful acts in the history of Cricket

When Aluminium replaced a willow

During the Perth Test of the three-match Test series against England, Australian pacer Dennis Lillee, the overnight batsman at the end of day one, walked out to bat on day two with a bat made of Aluminium.

The bat was manufactured by the company of Lillee's good friend and business partner Graeme Monaghan and the former Aussie pacer used it in a match as a marketing stunt.

When Lillee drove the fourth ball of the second day for three runs, there was a disconcerting metallic noise that came when the ball hit the bat. Australian captain Greg Chappell thought that the shot should have gone for four and blamed the metal bat for the ball reaching the boundary. He sent the 12th man Rodney Hogg out to the ground with two conventional bats for Lillee to use and Hogg was asked to go back to the pavilion by Lillee.

While this was going on, England captain Mike Brearley complained to umpires Max O'Connell and Don Weser about the bat damaging the ball and the officials consulted and instructed Lillee to change it for which the latter refused.

The argument continued for almost ten minutes before Chappell walked out from the pavilion with a bat in his hand and marched towards Lillee, making it fairly clear that the game had to go on.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack said that "Lillee's 'unsavoury' behaviour partly overshadowed other individual performances more in keeping with the spirit of the game. The incident served only to blacken Lillee's reputation and damage the image of the game as well as, eventually, the Australian authorities because of their reluctance to take effective disciplinary action".