The England tour of Australia in the winter of 1932/33 is arguably the most controversial ever undertaken by any side in the history of English cricket.
It led to such anger and hostility on a part of the public that some English players were viewed as pariahs. At one stage, cricket almost led to a virtual breakdown in diplomatic relations between the two countries.
And it also saw the introduction of a new tactic seldom seen before in the game at this level. The word ‘Bodyline’ later became synonymous with the whole tour.
Even today, the term carries with it suggestions of underhand tactics and gamesmanship for many Australians.
However, it is impossible to understand its genesis without the appreciation of the batting phenomenon that was Don Bradman at the time.
The last time Australia had visited England in the summer of 1930, Bradman had scored 970 runs in the Test matches – still a world record series aggregate. He averaged 139.14, and scored a triple century and two other double hundreds in.
To have any chance of regaining the Ashes, England needed to find a way to stop Bradman’s flow of runs.
The man tasked with finding an answer was England’s captain Douglas Jardine, an amateur noted for his austere character.
Jardine believed that, if Bradman had one weakness, it against balls which bounced into his chest. He developed a plan to exploit this.
He asked his pace bowlers – Harold Larwood, Bill Voce, Bill Bowes, and Gubby Allen – to bowl fast, high-bouncing balls on the line of the leg stump of the batters, with six to eight close-in fielders surrounding them on the leg side at catching positions.
In an age where players did not wear any protective equipment except for pads, they would be forced to duck, risking painful blows in the process.
The tactic worked to the extent that England would regain the Ashes, but at a considerable cost.
Australian captain Bill Woodfull was hit on the chest, while wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield had his skull fractured – both off Larwood. However, to be fair, the ball that hit Woodfull merely rose at chest level, while Oldfield had ducked into a ball that did not rise, and the ball took his top edge.
Many others suffered extensive bruising and even Bradman was rattled. Larwood had to be escorted from the ground after a day’s play ended in Adelaide, with an angry mob after his blood. Jardine even threatened to pull his team out of the tour after being accused of unsportsmanlike behaviour by his opposite number, Bill Woodfull.
In the end, the Australian cricket board was forced to back down when their government expressed the fear that a British boycott of Australian goods could ruin the country’s economy, more so in the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Both Jardine and Larwood were derided by cricket’s hierarchy by their role in the affair. Asked to apologise, Larwood refused, and never played for England again.
A few years later the MCC banned bodyline bowling – though only after their own batters faced a comparably hostile bouncer barrage from the West Indians, particularly Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine.