Bodyline
What was the Bodyline series?
Why did England use the bodyline tactic?
Who was the captain of the England team during the Bodyline series?
Bodyline refers to a bowling tactic in which short-pitched fast deliveries are directed at batters’ bodies while most of the team’s fielders are placed on the leg side of the field. It was first used by English fast bowlers during the 1932–33 Ashes cricket series against Australia. English captain Douglas Jardine deployed the tactic specifically to counter the prolific run scoring of Australian batter Don Bradman, with the larger goal of winning back the Ashes. England won the five-match series 4–1, but the win was clouded by injuries to Australian batters, tensions between the teams, rising crowd unrest that almost led to riots, and strained diplomatic relations between Australia and England. The series remains among the most controversial and enduring events in the history of cricket, and it eventually led to changes in the rules of the game to restrict bodyline-style bowling.
While Australian journalist Jack Worrall was among the first to use the phrase on the line of the body to describe English bowling, the term bodyline is believed to have been coined by another journalist, Hugh Buggy, who wrote “body-line bowling” in his copy after the first day of Test cricket in the series; his editor dispensed with the hyphen, and by the end of the series the label had stuck.
Background and planning
The previous Ashes series in England in 1930 had been dominated by Bradman, who scored 974 runs in seven innings, still a record for most runs scored by a batter in a Test series. Australia won the five-match series 2–1 (with two draws), but, more importantly, English bowlers seemed to have no clue how to tackle Bradman. Before the next tour, planned for 1932–33, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), then responsible for managing English cricket, looked for ways to reduce Bradman’s effectiveness, especially given that the series was to be played in his home country of Australia.
The MCC appointed Douglas Jardine, who had been part of the 1928–29 tour of Australia, captain of the English team for the 1932–33 series. He studied Bradman’s batting during the 1930 Ashes and came to believe that Bradman struggled against fast balls directed at his chest. Jardine planned to target this perceived weakness and adopt the tactic of leg theory, in which bowlers, supported by a predominantly leg side field, deliberately bowl at or outside the leg stump. Jardine’s approach hinged on bowling short-pitched pace deliveries on a leg-stump line, forcing the batter to either take evasive action to prevent injury or risk getting out caught on the leg side.
Jardine’s plan relied heavily on producing accurate fast bowling. He urged the English team selectors to pick a pace-heavy team for the tour, led by Nottinghamshire pace bowler Harold Larwood, widely considered one of the fastest bowlers in the history of the game. The team, managed by Pelham (“Plum”) Warner and Richard Palairet, embarked for Australia in September 1932. Early glimpses of what would become “bodyline” were seen in an MCC vs. Australian XI tour match in November that year, when a ball from Larwood hit Australian captain Bill Woodfull near the heart. Incidentally, Jardine did not play in this fixture. Australian opener Jack Fingleton was hit on the body a few times in the next match of the tour, between the MCC and New South Wales.
Bodyline at the 1932–33 Ashes
The first Test began in Sydney on December 2, 1932; Bradman did not play because of an ongoing contract dispute with the Australian cricket board, though illness due to physical and mental fatigue has also been cited as a likely reason for his absence. The English bowlers employed the short ball, and a few Australian batters were hit on the body. Larwood took 10 wickets in the match, which is also remembered for centuries scored by Stan McCabe for Australia and by Herbert Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond, and Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi for England. England won the match by 10 wickets. Bradman returned for the second Test, in Melbourne, but was out first ball for a duck in Australia’s first innings. However, his unbeaten century in the second innings led to an Australian victory.
With the series level 1–1, the third Test in Adelaide was highly anticipated; Pataudi was dropped, supposedly for opposing the bodyline tactic. On the second day of the Test, Woodfull was hit over the heart by Larwood, angering the 50,000-strong partisan crowd. Though Larwood was bowling to a conventional field at the time, Jardine immediately switched to a bodyline field, further maddening the audience. At the end of the day, when Warner called on Woodfull in the Australian dressing room to inquire about his health, Woodfull remarked:
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I don’t want to see you, Mr. Warner. There are two sides out there. One is trying to play cricket, the other is not.
The quote was leaked to the media, sparking further public ire. On the next day of the match, Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield was hit on the head and suffered a fractured skull while facing Larwood (to a conventional field) and had to be carried off the field. The bowler immediately apologized, and Oldfield said it was his own fault; however, the crowd’s reaction necessitated additional police support. England players, especially Jardine, were constantly booed and heckled. England eventually won the match easily, but the Australian cricket board cabled the MCC, calling bodyline unsportsmanlike and “a menace.” English newspapers as well as the MCC largely considered the Australian response to be an overreaction and placed their full support behind Jardine and his team.
The debate spiraled into a diplomatic incident ahead of the fourth Test; Jardine refused to let his team play unless the Australian board withdrew its allegations of unsportsmanlike conduct, and there were calls in Australia to boycott the English team unless it stopped using bodyline. Eventually, diplomacy and financial considerations prevailed, and the series continued. England won the fourth Test, in which bodyline was again used, as well as the fifth, notable for a quick 98 runs from Larwood; he received a standing ovation when he was dismissed. England thus regained the Ashes with a scoreline of 4–1; Larwood took 33 wickets. Bradman was the top run scorer for Australia but had only one century in the series, suggesting his threat had been quelled.
Jardine’s mission had been accomplished, though not without dissent within the team. Pataudi had refused to play in a bodyline fielding position, fast bowler George (“Gubby”) Allen had refused to bowl according to the tactic, and manager Warner had opposed it as well.
Aftermath and legacy
Bodyline was widely considered unsportsmanlike in Australia, though it was legal under the cricket rules of the time. The MCC summoned Jardine and the managers, as well as Larwood and fellow fast bowler Bill Voce, for a hearing on their return, but little action was taken until a home Test against the West Indies when the West Indian pacers Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine used bodyline tactics against England. While Jardine stood tall and scored a hundred (his only century in Tests), the MCC was finally shocked enough to change the rules of cricket, stating that “any form of bowling which is obviously a direct attack by the bowler upon the batsman would be an offence against the spirit of the game.” Eventually, another clause was added to restrict the maximum number of fielders placed behind square on the leg side to two, making bodyline, which requires positioning multiple fielders in that area of the field, largely ineffectual.
Jardine continued to captain England but played his last series in 1934 and quit first-class cricket in 1937. Larwood, who was over-bowled and suffered multiple injuries on the tour, was scapegoated and vilified for bodyline after he refused to apologize for his bowling and stated that he was only following orders. He did not play Test cricket again, immigrated to Australia after World War II, and was surprisingly well received, spending the remainder of his days there.
Several books have been written about the series, and it features significantly in autobiographies of players such as Bradman as well. Jardine’s account of the tour, In Quest of the Ashes, was published in 1933. Fingleton, who was part of the Australian team during the series, published Cricket Crisis: Bodyline and Other Lines in 1946. Other notable books include Bodyline: The Novel (1983) by Paul Wheeler and Bodyline Autopsy (2002) by David Frith.
A seven-episode miniseries titled Bodyline, starring Gary Sweet as Bradman and Hugo Weaving as Jardine, was released in 1984. While commercially well received, it was criticized for its lack of attention to detail and distortion of historical facts.