1. THE UNDERARM BALL

Had Kiwi Brian McKechnie somehow belted the ball for six in the final of the 1981 World Series Cup do you think we'd still be talking about it? Would we even remember the name McKechnie? No, it'd be just another entry in Wisden. Instead, the decision by Aussie captain Greg Chappell to get his brother to bowl the last ball underarm to make a New Zealand tie impossible has us still regarded by some as bloody cheats and has forever put a stain on the noble name of Trevor.

2. THE KENNETT CURSE

Trust a politician to open his big mouth. The former Vic premier and then Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett's bold decision to trash talk the Geelong Cats after the Hawks won the 2008 grand final is still haunting his club. "What they don't have, I think, is the quality of some of our players; they don't have the psychological drive we have. We've beaten Geelong when it matters," Kennett said, setting off some cosmic chain reaction of voodoo-karma that has meant Geelong has now not lost a single game to the Hawks in five years. Especially sweet for the Cats has been that nine of those 11 wins have been by 10 points or less.

3. DUMB AND DUNNING

It's Brumbies day in Canberra today, so many will happily recall the day 10 years ago Matt Dunning blew the NSW Waratahs' hopes of making the Super 12 finals. His team were winning the game, but had two tries needing two more to earn a bonus point to sneak into the four. With precious few minutes left the prop did something no prop should ever do, he had a shot at a drop goal. His thinking was that he would miss and earn his team a penalty from the advantage being played by the ref. Instead he nailed it, nailed shut the coffin on the Tahs' season and earned himself an eternal spot in lists like this.

4. DON'T DO IT CAMPO!

Kurtley Beale's decision not to clean his boots probably led to him slipping over as he attempted the kick that could have won the Wallabies this year's series against the British and Irish Lions. But 24 years earlier the great David Campese made a decision that definitely cost Australia series. In the deciding third Test Campo field a missed drop-goal attempt from Rob Andrew in his ingoal area. Instead of opting for the sensible approach of grounding the ball, Campo decided to attack, throwing a pass to fullback Greg Martin, who of course wasn't expecting it. The ball went to ground, Lions winger Ieuan Evans gleefully fell on it to score and Australia would wait more than a decade to finally win a series against the Lions.

5. HAND OF GOD

The referee's decision to award a Diego Maradona goal to Argentina in the quarter final 1986 World Cup is still talked about, largely because England were the losers and there was a wee bit of bad blood between the countries, what with the unpleasantness in the Falklands a few years earlier. To score the first of his two goals in the 2-1 win, Maradona ran to the he edge of the box to effect what looked to be a header into the goal, but replays showed him using his raised left hand to lift it over the goalkeeper. The colourful genius/cheat had the cheek to later describe it as "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God". A measure of infamy, later built on by a spectacular drug addiction, was secured.

6. TAKE OFF THOSE WRISTBANDS

Australian batsman Dean Jones made a spectacularly bad decision to challenge West Indies paceman Curtly Ambrose to take off his white wristbands during a one-day international in the summer of 92-93. Jones said they appeared too much like the white ball. The towering Ambrose grudgingly complied, but fired up by the request he went on to take 5-32. He later said "What Dean Jones did was a bad mistake which backfired. I blew them away".

Got a better - or worse - one? Let us know in the comments of the story.