The Ashes will always be a hot and fiery affair between Australia and England. However, things took a drastic turn for the 1932-33 series. England's bowlers were trained to bowl in order to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman, Don Bradman. This series had massive ramfications for the game for the future.
To define: a bodyline delivery was one in which the cricket ball was bowled at pace, aimed at the body of the batsman in the expectation that when he defended himself with his bat, a resulting deflection could be caught by one of several fielders deliberately placed nearby on the leg side.
At the time, no helmets or other upper-body protective gear was worn and critics of the tactic considered it intimidating and physically threatening in a game traditionally supposed to uphold conventions of sportsmanship.
The England team's use of the tactic was perceived by some, both in Australia and England, as overly aggressive or even unfair. It caused a controversy that rose to such a level that it threatened diplomatic relations between the two countries before the situation was calmed.
Bodyline bowling is intended to be intimidatory and it was primarily designed as an attempt to curb the unusually prolific scoring of Donald Bradman; although other Australian batsmen such as Bill Woodfull, Bill Ponsford and Alan Kippax were also targeted.
Several terms were used to describe this style of bowling before the name 'bodyline' was used. Among the first to use it was the writer and former Australian Test cricketer, Jack Worrall, in the match between the English team and an Australian XI. When 'bodyline' was first used in full, he referred to "half-pitched slingers on the body line" and first used it in print after the first Test. Other writers used a similar phrase around this time, but the first use of 'bodyline' in print seems to have been by the journalist, Hugh Buggy, in the Melbourne Herald, in his report on the first day's play of the 1st Test.
The Great Depression was weighing heavily on Australians. Unemployment was rising and austerity measures, recommended to the Australian Government by British economists, were widely resented.
During Australia’s tour of England in 1930, the young Don Bradman dominated the English bowlers. During the Test series, Bradman scored 974 runs (an average of 139.14) including one single century, two doubles and a triple (334), which broke the world Test batting record. This caused significant disquiet for the English cricketing community but elation in Australia where Bradman returned a hero.
In preparing for their 1932 tour to Australia, England sought a way to stifle Bradman’s scoring. Their captain, Douglas Jardine, developed an approach in which the ball was bowled fast and short, rising up to the batsman’s body while fielders hovered close to the leg side.
The relationship between Jardine and Australian cricket fans was already tense. During the 1928–29 tour to Australia, he was perceived as supercilious and rude. His air of upper-class superiority rankled with the Australian crowds.
As captain for the 1932–33 series, Jardine made no efforts to remedy the situation, was uncooperative in press interviews and didn’t provide team details before matches. While Jardine’s character exacerbated the situation, his tactics had the backing of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The Test series began in Sydney with England winning the match. Bradman was absent due to illness. Australia levelled the score in Melbourne. Then, during the 3rd Test in Adelaide, the English captain turned to Bodyline tactics.
The already hostile crowd was furious and when one delivery struck Australian captain, Bill Woodfull, just above the heart, it was feared a riot would start. Tempers flared on the field and in the stands and while Woodfull maintained a diplomatic stance in public, in private he too, was furious.
A key aspect of Australian frustration was that the English tactics seemed to go against all that was valued in cricket: fair play, ethical conduct and a shared cultural understanding of behaviour. In response to the danger faced by the players, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket sent a tersely worded telegram to the MCC on 18 January 1933:
"Body-line bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game, making protection of the body by the batsmen the main consideration. This is causing intensely bitter feeling between the players as well as injury. In our opinion it is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once it is likely to upset the friendly relations existing between Australia and England."
The English administrators didn't appreciate their players being accused of unsportsmanlike conduct. Not having witnessed the barrage of body blows, they felt that the Australian side was making excuses. The MCC responded sternly on 23 January:
"We, Marylebone Cricket Club, deplore your cable. We deprecate your opinion that there has been unsportsmanlike play…
We hope the situation is not now as serious as your cable would seem to indicate, but if it is such as to jeopardize the good relations between English and Australian cricketers and you consider it desirable to cancel remainder of programme we would consent, but with great reluctance."
For a while, it seemed that cricket would strain diplomatic relations between Australia and England. After intervention from the Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, the Australian Board of Control withdrew its charge of unsportsmanlike behaviour and the final tests were played. England won the series 4–1 and reclaimed the Ashes.
The impact of England’s bodyline tactics extended beyond the cricket pitch. Struggling with ongoing hardship during the Depression, Australians saw the aggressive tactics of the English team as representative of England’s wider attitude to the country.
While riots and diplomatic rows were averted, the series challenged not only a shared understanding of cricket but tested Australia’s changing relationship with England and empire.
During the 3rd Test at Adelaide, Australian captain, Bill Woodfull, was struck down by a ball to the chest and the team wicketkeeper, Bert Oldfield, suffered a fractured skull.
The new tactic even split the English side. The fast bowler, George 'Gubby' Allen, refused to bowl bodyline despite the urgings of his captain, Douglas Jardine. 'Gubby' Allen described Jardine as 'a perfect swine' in a letter to his parents, Sir Walter and Lady Allen.
Allen's letters contrast sharply with reporting of the matches in England. A series of cables were transmitted to Radio Paris from a journalist in Australia, each day, giving a brief description of the day's play. This text of the cable was then broadcast across the Channel to English audiences. The typed transcripts of these broadcasts show that the cables were often censored to erase critical references to the new bodyline bowling tactic.
Due to restrictions on commercial radio in the United Kingdom in the 1930's, radio stations were established on the continent to beam programs directly to the United Kingdom. The main station was situated in Paris. One of it's advertisers was the Gillette Safety Razor Co. which sponsored reporting of the controversial 1932-33 cricket series played between Australia and England in Australia. These were the days before live radio and television broadcasts of international sporting events. Each day, a reporter cabled very brief descriptions of play to Paris where they were transformed into full scripts which were then broadcast to the United Kingdom.
The original cable had been fired off during the fury of the 3rd Test at Adelaide, the most infamous game of an infamous series. Australia had started their innings in the afternoon of the second day, with more than 50 000 spectators squeezed elbow to elbow into the ground. The Australian captain, Bill Woodfull, was struck over the heart by Harold Larwood, then bowling with a conventional field and staggered away from the crease, clutching his chest. The booing from the crowd lasted for three long minutes. Douglas Jardine, with the immaculate timing of the best pantomime villains, then called out loudly: "Well bowled, Harold." And he had more up his sleeve. Just before Larwood was about to begin his next over, with Woodfull at the striker’s end, Jardine halted play and moved his fielders into bodyline positions on the leg side. The already explosive crowd were incandescent, and they weren’t alone.
Later that day, the English manager, Sir Pelham Warner, entered the Australian dressing room to check on Woodfull’s health. "I don’t want to see you Mr. Warner," Woodfull told him. "There are two sides out there. One is trying to play cricket, the other is not." Lost for words, and personally insulted, Warner turned on his heels and left.
The confrontation was duly leaked to the press the next day – with Jack Fingleton the usual suspect, though he pointed the finger at Don Bradman – inflaming already high tensions, while on the field Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield was clattered on the head trying to hook Larwood, collapsing like a stamped-upon tissue box.
Claude Corbett described the scene in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph: "The hostility when Oldfield was hit on the head by a ball from Larwood and dropped as if he had been shot after staggering a few yards, was the most intense I have ever heard at a cricket match. Hoots and yells from one section, counting out from another and cries of dismay from the women’s stand made a bedlam of noise. So hostile was the crowd at one stage that more police were rushed to the ground and others were mustered to stand by. Australian crowds are being worked to such high tension by the leg theory attack that the day may not be too far distant when something more serious than vocal demonstrations will be the culminating scene."
Like the best sporting scandals, the story had now spread from the back pages to the front, engaging letter writers, columnists, editorials and the general public. The Australians had their pantomime villain. "If there was a most popular man competition promoted in Australia at the moment and Douglas Jardine constituted all three starters in it, it would be safe to wager he wouldn’t fill a place," fired the leader writer in Melbourne’s Truth newspaper.
Meanwhile in London, without television coverage, the hullabaloo was considered to be inexcusable whingeing from a team cut down to size.
"We deplore your cable," the MCC fired back. "We deprecate your opinion that there has been unsportsmanlike play. We have the fullest confidence in our captain, team and managers and are sure that they would do nothing to infringe either the laws of cricket or the spirit of the game." It concluded that, "if you consider it desirable to cancel the remainder of the programme, we would consent, but with great reluctance."
Jardine also cabled London, refusing to captain the side again unless the ACB withdrew their "unsporting" accusation.
The Australians found themselves stuck. No one wanted the series to be cancelled and they couldn’t afford to upset relations with the United Kingdom any further. They were forced into a humiliating climbdown – and the fourth Test duly started on 10 February at the Gabba, where England won and regained the Ashes.
Although no serious injuries arose from any short-pitched deliveries while a leg theory field was set, the tactic led to considerable ill feelings between the two teams, particularly when Australian batsmen were struck, inflaming spectators. After the introduction of helmets, short-pitched fast bowling, sometimes exceeding 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), continues to be permitted in cricket, even when aimed at the batsman and is considered to be a legitimate bowling tactic when used sparingly. Over time, several Laws of Cricket were changed to render the bodyline tactic less effective—and increase player safety—such as a legside field restriction, concussion breaks and inspections.
As a direct consequence of the 1932–33 tour, the MCC introduced a new rule to the Laws of Cricket for the 1935 English cricket season. Originally, the MCC hoped that captains would ensure that the game was played in the correct spirit and passed a resolution that bodyline bowling would breach this spirit. When this proved to be insufficient, the MCC passed a law that "direct attack" bowling was unfair and became the responsibility of the umpires to identify and stop.
In 1957, the laws were altered to prevent more than two fielders standing behind square on the leg side; the intention was to prevent negative bowling tactics whereby off-spinners and slow inswing bowlers aimed at the leg stump of batsmen with fielders concentrated on the leg side. However, an indirect effect was to make bodyline fields impossible to implement.
Later law changes, under the heading of, "Intimidatory Short Pitched Bowling", also restricted the number of "bouncers" which might be bowled in an over. Nevertheless, the tactic of intimidating the batsman is still used to an extent that would have been shocking in 1933, although it's less dangerous now because today's players wear helmets and generally wear more protective gear. The West Indies teams of the 1980's, who regularly fielded a bowling attack comprising some of the best fast bowlers in cricket history, were perhaps the most feared exponents.
The English players and management were consistent in referring to their tactic as fast leg theory, considering it to be a variant of the established and unobjectionable leg theory tactic. The inflammatory term "bodyline" was coined and perpetuated by the Australian press. English writers used the term fast leg theory. The terminology reflected differences in understanding, as neither the English public nor the MCC - the governing body of English cricket - could understand why the Australians were complaining about what they perceived as a commonly used tactic. Some concluded that the Australian cricket authorities and public were sore losers.
Of the four fast bowlers in the tour party, Gubby Allen was a voice of dissent in the English camp, refusing to bowl short on the leg side and writing several letters home to England critical of Jardine, although he didn't express this in public in Australia. A number of other players, while maintaining a united front in public, also deplored bodyline in private. The amateurs Bob Wyatt (the vice-captain), Freddie Brown and Nawab of Pataudi opposed it, as did Wally Hammond and Les Ames among the professionals.
During the season, Woodfull's physical courage, stoic and dignified leadership won him many admirers. He flatly refused to employ retaliatory tactics and didn't publicly complain even though he and his men were repeatedly hit.
Jardine, however, insisted his tactic was not designed to cause injury and that he was leading his team in a sportsmanlike and gentlemanly manner, arguing that it was up to the Australian batsmen to play their way out of trouble.
It was subsequently revealed that several of the players had private reservations, but they did not express them publicly at the time.
Following the 1932–33 series, several authors, including many of the players involved, released books expressing various points of view about bodyline. Many argued that it was a scourge on cricket and must be stamped out, while some didn't see what all the fuss was about.
The series has been described as the most controversial period in Australian cricket history and it was voted the most important Australian moment by a panel of Australian cricket identities. The MCC asked Harold Larwood to sign an apology to them for his bowling in Australia, making his selection for England again conditional upon it. Larwood was furious at the notion, pointing out that he had been following orders from his captain and that was where any blame should lie. Larwood refused, never played for England again and became vilified in his own country.
Douglas Jardine always defended his tactics and in the book he wrote about the tour, In Quest of the Ashes, described allegations that the England bowlers directed their attack with the intention of causing physical harm as stupid and patently untruthful. The immediate effect of the law change which banned bodyline in 1935 was to make commentators and spectators sensitive to the use of short-pitched bowling; bouncers became exceedingly rare and bowlers who delivered them were practically ostracised.
This attitude ended after World War II and among the first teams to make extensive use of short-pitched bowling was the Australian team captained by Bradman between 1946 and 1948. Other teams soon followed.
Outside the sport, there were significant consequences for Anglo-Australian relations, which remained strained until the outbreak of World War II made co-operation paramount. Business between the two countries was adversely affected as citizens of each country avoided goods manufactured in the other. Australian commerce also suffered in British colonies in Asia: the North China Daily News published a pro-bodyline editorial, denouncing Australians as sore losers. An Australian journalist reported that several business deals in Hong Kong and Shanghai were lost by Australians because of local reactions.
English immigrants in Australia found themselves shunned and persecuted by locals and Australian visitors to England were treated similarly.
In 1934–35 a statue of Prince Albert in Sydney was vandalised, with an ear being knocked off and the word "BODYLINE" painted on it. Both before and after World War II, numerous satirical cartoons and comedy skits were written, mostly in Australia, based on events of the bodyline tour. Generally, they poked fun at the English.
To this day, the bodyline tour remains one of the most significant events in the history of cricket and it's still strong in the consciousness of many cricket followers. In a poll of cricket journalists, commentators and players in 2004, the bodyline tour was ranked the most important event in cricket history.
I always look forward to Ashes series'. I would then obviously be intrigued by this series. I was aware of this series but didn't know the full details behind it. I have to side with Australia. I believe this tactic was unsportsmanslike. Injuring players, possibly on purpose, doesn't deserve a place in the sports world. It was a good decision by the MCC to change the laws that makes sure that there's no repeat.