Bodyline

**Bodyline** was the name given to a cricket tactic that drove a wedge between the Australian and English cricket teams over the summer of 1932 and 1933.

## Background

Australia held the Ashes, having come home from England in 1930 with a 2-1 series victory. A young Don Bradman made 974 runs in that series - a record that still stands today - at an average of 139.14. England knew he was dangerous, so they tried to devise a plan to control the budding star.

## The plan develops

Douglas Jardine was appointed captain of the English cricket team in 1931 and faced New Zealand and India in the first two northern Summers prior to the tour of Australia over the southern Summer of 1932 and 1933. He already had a reputation as an aggressive captain, not taking kindly to any player who disobeyed orders.

Jardine had discussions with Nottingham captain Arthur Carr and two of his bowlers who were likely to tour Australia as well - Harold Larwood and Bill Voce. The idea was to bowl at leg stump and at the body of the batsman with a number of fielders in a circle around the bat on the legside, waiting for an edge when the batsman potentially deflected the rising ball to them. They called it "leg theory", a tactic that wasn't new but on this occasion it was designed to take advantage of a perceived weakness of Bradman's towards short fast bowling. Larwood and Voce had the chance to work on perfecting the type of bowling required for their county team during the second half of the 1932 northern summer.

## The tour of Australia

The English team arrived in Australia in late 1932 and played some warm up matches. It would be in mid November that the Australians would first sight the new tactic in it's full glory, during a first class game against an Australian team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Jardine didn't play, but despite Bill Wyatt's captaincy in this game, Larwood and Voce tried the tactics on the harder Australian pitches for the first time. The ball tended to rise higher in Australia than it did in England which made "fast leg theory" (as the English press called it) decidedly more dangerous. The Australian press saw the danger and gave the tactic a different name - Bodyline. It is held that the first newspaper writer to use this name was Hugh Buggy, who wrote for the Melbourne Herald.

### The First Test

The Test series, known as The Ashes, began in Sydney at the Sydney Cricket Ground on December 2, 1932. Bradman was not playing, due to a dispute between him and the Australian Cricket Board over a contract that Bradman had which included writing for newspaper the Sydney Sun - something that the board frowned upon when it came to current players. Both sides stood firm and Bradman was left out of the first test. Health issues also contributed, leading Jardine to later claim that Bradman had suffered a nervous breakdown. This claim was never proven.

Knowing about the tactic from the match in Melbourne, the selectors faced some pressure to strike back and include fast bowlers like Eddie Gilbert and Laurie Nash. Vice Captain Victor Richardson was particularly vocal. But captain Bill Woodfull stood firm and retained his captaincy despite a last minute challenge.

Despite the Bodyline tactic, Stan McCabe scored 187 runs through successfully hitting the ball over the circle of fielders on the legside, but three centuries by Herbert Sutcliffe (who was 6 short of a double century), Wally Hammond and Iftikhar Pataudi gave England a 164 run lead. In the second innings England dismissed Australia for just that, 164, and England scored the one run needed without the loss of a wicket and they won by 10 wickets.

### The Second Test

The second test was played at in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the end of the year in the traditional Christmas New Year period, starting on December 30, 1932. Bradman played this time after the Sydney Sun released him from his contract. A then record crowd of 63,993 attended on the first day with the public already aware of the danger posed by Bodyline and they were hoping that Bradman could resist. He received a standing ovation when he came in to bat at the fall of the second wicket - but made the mistake of believing the first ball would be short and when it wasn't he played the ball onto his stumps to be out first ball - known in cricket as a golden duck. It was Bradman's first in his Test career and the crowd was stunned. Australia in the end scored 228 runs. England in reply only scored 169 runs with Bill O'Reilly taking five wickets.

In the second innings Bradman changed his tack. With wickets falling around him, he gutted it out with one of his most famous innings. He scored 103 not out, getting to his century after Bert Ironmonger managed to stay long enough lasting out a crucial over to give Bradman the strike. The effort gave the home team a 250 run lead. To the delight of the Melbourne crowd, England were dismissed for 139 with O'Reilly again taking five wickets and Australia won by 111 runs to tie the series at 1-1.

### The Third Test

The third test was played at the Adelaide Oval starting on January 13, 1933. It would be during this match that the controversy would hit it's peak.

England scored 341 runs in the first innings. When Australia batted, in the third over Larwood bowled the fifth ball of it to Woodfull and narrowly missed his head. The last ball of the over caught the Australian captain right under the ribs near the heart, causing Woodfull to stagger away holding his chest and then double over. Jardine called to Larwood "Well bowled" to apparently unnerve Bradman who was at the non striker's end. Woodfull though heard it and was shocked. The over was completed and Woodfull was now at the non striker's end. But when he faced Larwood again to start the following over, the Bodyline field was put in place and the crowd reacted with fury. Luckily Woodfull was not hit again - many believe there would have been a riot in the crowd if he had. This was in spite of a short Larwood delivery knocking the bat out of Woodfull's hands.

It would be after this that there was a confrontation at the dressing room door of the Australians between Woodfull and English manager Pelham Warner, in which Woodfull told him; "I don't want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not." The next day was a rest day, but on the morning of the resumption the exchange had made the newspapers, shocking many on both sides. The source of the leak - unheard of in the 1930's - was never established.

And things did get worse. The Australian wicketkeeper, Bert Oldfield, had a 63 run partnership with Bill Ponsford and after Ponsford was bowled by Voce it looked like Oldfield may score a half century. But when he was on 41 runs, he was struck in the head with a rising ball from Larwood and the crowd almost exploded with fury again - even though Oldfield himself contributed with a top edge. The legside field wasn't in place at the time either, but such was the angst towards the English team at this point this incident was regarded as heinous. Oldfield retired hurt, and had a fractured skull. Australia was dismissed for 222 runs with Bradman only getting 8.

England scored 412 runs in their second innings with plenty of contributors, and Bradman tried again to rescue the ship despite the target of 532 runs. But he and Woodfull were the only resistors and England won by 338 runs.

### The tour is nearly abandoned

It was between the third and fourth tests that the tour was almost abandoned. The Australian Cricket Board had sent an angry cable to the Marylebone Cricket Club after the fourth day of the third test, complaining about the tactic. But because the MCC were only familiar with their own wickets, they didn't see the problem with something that was perfectly legal. They demanded the cable be withdrawn - especially the use of the word "unsportsmanlike". Jardine added his voice threatening to abandon the tour if a similar retraction wasn't made, especially when more leaks alleging arguments within the English team - believed to have come from Pataudi who had been dropped from the team after his opposition to Bodyline - appeared in Australian newspapers.

This was a major diplomatic incident in the making. The Governor of South Australia, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, was in England at the time and had discussions with British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs James Henry Thomas claiming a threat to trade between the two countries. It was only resolved when the Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, met with the ACB and told them of the consequences for Australia if a retraction wasn't issued. Even though they didn't like it, the retraction was made - two days before the fourth test was due to begin.

### The fourth and fifth tests

The fourth test was played at the Gabba in Brisbane starting on February 10, 1933. With the wickets getting slower due to the wear of the domestic season there were no more players hit despite the tactic continuing. It was also the case that Brisbane's humidity made the tactic harder to maintain, along with Voce having to miss the Test. But the damage had been done, and England won the fourth test by six wickets to regain the Ashes.

In the fire and brimstone atmosphere of the series, the heat was cooled somewhat by the Australian public's appreciation for the heroics of English batsman Eddie Paynter. Despite battling tonsillitis and an associated fever in the Brisbane heat and humidity, he batted for four hours to score 83 in the first innings and then he hit the winning runs in the second innings.

The fifth and final test was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground again (test cricket didn't arrive in Perth until 1970) and England won by eight wickets.

## The Aftermath

Eventually the MCC got the idea of what the problem was upon the team's return to England, but they made Larwood the scapegoat and as a result of his refusal to take responsibility for it - passing it to Jardine under orders - Larwood never played for England again. He ended up migrating to Australia in 1950. Jardine never backed down from his insistence that he had done nothing wrong and had nothing to apologise for, simply because it was within the rules. The ball never reacted the same way on Australia's hard pitches anywhere else such as England and indeed India. The MCC recognised at least there was an issue when the West Indies tried the tactic in the northern winter in 1933 after the Bodyline tour. Jardine faced it and got around it, but it was on the gentle English pitches. Players did get hurt in India, but nothing like what happened in Australia. Jardine never again played against Australia as he retired after the Indian tour.

As a result of the incident, in 1935 umpires were given the power to halt dangerous play for the first time. This judgment was previously the exclusive responsibility of the captains. The bumper (now better known as the bouncer) was still used on occasion, and eventually in 1957 the rule allowing only a maximum of two fielders behind square leg on the leg side was added. This actually didn't stop the practice of bouncers, especially by the West Indies - who realised all they needed was a man at deep third man. Finally the bowling of fast short pitched deliveries was restricted. Protective equipment is more advanced now than it was in the 1930's - particularly helmets.

The Bodyline series remains in Australian folklore with a television mini series created with some creative license taken, particularly with the Adelaide test where it was claimed that a riot did indeed take place including the burning of the English flag consequent to the Oldfield incident.

## Opinions

* If ever the importance of cricket to the culture of both Australia and England was emphasised it was the summer of 1932/1933. Speaking personally, I don't blame Larwood or any of the other bowlers. I blame Jardine. I don't accept Nassar Hussein's 2002 comment about Jardine's ruthlessness. It's one thing to be tough. It's something else to go totally outside the spirit of the game. Under the current laws of the game, Jardine would have been suspended - and quite rightly. His pompous, stuck up attitude was demonstrated admirably in the mini series when someone (apparently one of the Australian players) called Jardine a "bastard". At the next break, Jardine went to the Australian rooms and demanded an apology only to have the player who greeted him at the door ask the rest of the team; "Hey which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?" The Australian dressing room was instantly filled with laughter and Jardine stormed off in a huff. He had no clue of the Australian sense of humour or it's culture, making his swipe at Australian fans during the series ignorant and culturally bereft - which contrasted starkly with his view of India, where the fans are just as passionate. But then Jardine was born in India so there was some understanding there. The scene in the TV series was not quite reality though, as in fact it was the English manager who went to the rooms and not Jardine and allegedly it was Larwood who'd been called the bastard - in Adelaide presumably just after the Oldfield incident. It may have been a variation on the actual incident that was reported on the day after the rest day. Ian Chappell also commented about the series as his grandfather was Victor Richardson - confirming that Vic had strongly suggested to Bill Woodfull that the tactic be played back at England to see how they liked it. Vic was the vice captain. Woodfull though was a better sport than that. Richardson incidentally was the person at the door of the apology in reality and the actual words were, "Which one of you blokes mistook Larwood for that bastard Jardine?" **TLPG** 21:37, December 2, 2020 (UTC)