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| Sunday, 6 June 2004 |
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The England bowler stars in the crisis that rocked cricket Harold Larwood - the Silent Killer! by A. C. de Silva Talk of cricket and eventually the topic is bound to be as to who the fastest bowler in the game is or was in the past in the good old days. Cricket has become very popular the world over as the years rolled by and in the first class game, there has been fast bowling of varying pace - from the fast to the frightening Harold Larwood, Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Voce, Gubby Allen, Learie Constantine, Martindale, Freddie Trueman, Brian Statham, Frank Tyson, just to name some of the prominent pacemen of the past. So, when someone asks how one would rate Wesley Hall, or even Glenn McGrath or Jason Gillespie of the present Australian team with someone of the old school like Voce or Larwood? Pop may come the answer Wes Hall. But the fastest of all? No, there is only one man who deserves to be known as the King of Speed. the man who had it all - control, speed to turn a batsman pale, and the big heart to go with it. that was Harold Larwood, the man who is generally known as the 'Silent Killer.' He died on July 21 in 1995 at the age of 90 in Australia. It has been mentioned that Wes Hall has been timed during his peak at 90 m.p.h. Well, Larwood was two or three yards quicker than him, so one can guess what kind of 'murder' it was when he was letting them slip. The nickname of 'Silent Killer' was bestowed on Larwood. It is said that Joe Hardstaff used to field at cover point to Larwood who never had a mid-off, but Hardstaff has the easiest job in cricket because nobody much tried driving Larwood in front of the wicket because Larwood was so fast and Hardstaff had an easy job to perform. Cricket has made rapid progress over the years. The game did not die after the stalwarts of the past left the scene. The great players of today would have been great in any age, but there are just not so many of them about, so when Wes Hall is rated the third best fast bowler, behind Larwood and Ray Lindwall - that is a really honest opinion. The old generation still talk of Lawood and Ray Lindwall and some even think that Wes Hall was a medium-pacer. There have been some people who say that Hammond or Bradman would have carved Wes Hall like a man dishing up donkey drops on the beach. This is a laugh for Wes Hall was dangerous because he was not only fast but tall with it. Larwood lacked his height, so the ball he bowled on a length used to skid off more. Hall had only to pitch the ball a couple of inches short and he would get it up round the batsman's chest and shoulders. It was not the bouncers that worried - they were easy enough to play because one had got so much time to see the ball. This lifting stuff from just short of a length is much harder because the ball is coming up into the batsman all the time. Wes Hall has been lucky in one thing. He came to the front at a time when there were no other real fast bowlers. This is not to knock out bowlers like Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alan Davidson, Charlie Griffith and the rest. They are all highly skilled, intelligent bowlers who were pretty quick at times. But they were not frightening fast. The frighteners are the men one cannot make a mistake against because if you do they will remove your top set or break your arm. Hall was one like that and it gave him an advantage because batsmen did not get the practice against super speed. They used to see pace of that sort when they used to face Wes Hall in a Test. Fast bowlers, of course, are a breed apart with a sense of humour all their own. At Trent Bridge in England, for instance, they used to have bets just to gee each other up. 'Tanner on the wicket this time, Bill' somebody would call and up would come Voce - who could be as quick as Wes Hall when he wanted - to unleash a streak of lightning that would scorch the bet. There was fun too with the fast men but it was a generally accepted practice to keep clear of them just after lunch. Voce and Larwood were murder then. They would go down to the pub together for their break, have a few pints and then bet half a crown as to who would be the first to hit a batsman in the ribs! Until the money had changed hands it used to be like trying to pat off an artillery barrage with a tennis racquet. It wasn't much fun, but it was great practice. Turban knocked off In the good old days, a Sikh named Lal Singh did not find it so funny, though. He was in the Indian touring side playing Nottinghamshire. He wore a turban, which intrigued the boys. They got to talking about it and eventually one of the players turned to Harold Larwood and said: "I'll bet you a packet of fags you cannot knock his turban off." Lal Singh had a pretty high reputation as a batsman; otherwise Hammond would never have taken the bet on. He was not the sort of person to frighten the life out of tail-enders. He liked the challenge of bowling to real batsmen. Anyway, in came Lal Singh and the field settled down. There was strick silence. Larwood was after the turban. He dropped the ball short and Lal Singh, who was a good hooker, moved currently into line and shaped beautifully for the shot. The only trouble was that he was about half a day late with it and the bat was still around about the ear when Larwood's fastest ball hit his turban and sent it 'spinning towards first slip.' Happy ending It is reported that the shock put Lal Singh on his back. What he did not realise was that his religion forbade anybody to touch him. So as the players rushed up to him he called: "Don't touch me." In a voice that could be heard all round Trent Bridge, one of the boys growled: "Then stay there!" It all ended happily enough, and Larwood enjoyed his smokes. But it is a tough game, this cricket, with the laughs coming from some funny things. However, it was not a rosy streak for Larwood in cricket. In Australia Larwood was booed by some 50,000 spectators on the 1932-33 MCC tour of Australia. No player in the history of the game in years gone by has been the centre of such an ugly controversy. It ruined Larwood's cricketing career; nearly brought England-Australia Test match cricket to a summary end. The 'villain' of the so-called bodyline bowling scandal was an inoffensive-looking man, slightly-built and only 5 ft 8 inches tall. But when this ex-miner from Nottingham was bowling flat out, he struck absolute terror into the hearts of the greatest batsmen. Taking a run of more than 20 paces, he pounded up to the wicket and projected his five-and-a-half ounce missile at 90 m.p.h. His express deliveries could remove stumps several yards and send the bails spinning almost to the boundary. On the tour, not a word of protest was uttered when Larwood bowled England to a 10-wicket victory in the First Test at Sydney by taking 10 wickets for 124 runs. And no one complained when Australia won the Second Test. However, the Australian Press coined a sinister new term - body-line. They were referring to the England tactical plan of fast leg-theory, designed to check the colossal scores of top Australian batsmen, particularly Don Bradman who, before this series, had amassed the astronomical total of 974 runs in seven Test innings. In leg-theory - not a completely new strategy - the aim was to concentrate the attack on the leg stump with a packed inner and outer ring of fieldsmen on the leg side. Bodyline unfairly suggested that it was an attack on the batsman not the stump. Aussies injured Controversy over such tactics blazed into public uproar when England came to Adelaide for the third Test. For then Australians Bill Woodfull and Bertie Oldfield were both hit severely by Larwood's thunderbolts. The enraged crowd booed and shouted in protest. Their anger reached such fever-pitch that it seemed they might invade the pitch at any moment. Hedley Verity, fielding in the deep looked anxiously about him, and later explained that he was considering the best way to escape. In the dressing room, Woodfull snapped: "There are two teams out there and one of them isn't playing cricket." Fuel was added to the flames with the publication of photographs showing bruises on Australian batsmen, and reports that special armour was to be worn by players. The body-line issue was now being blown up far beyond its true proportions. An Australian judge even expressed the opinion that this type of bowling was an offence chargeable under criminal law! sensationalism finally prompted official action. On January 18, 1933, the Australian Board of Control hastily dispatched an ill-conceived cable to the M.C.C. "Body-line bowing 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 it is stopped at once, it is likely to upset the friendly relations existing between Australia and England." The M.C.C. replied that they deplored the cable and the opinion that there had been unsportsmanlike play. They also offered to cancel the rest of the tour if the Australian Board so wished. Government steps in The crisis now reached Government level and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. J. H. Thomas, was consulted. The cable exchange ended with the Australian Board giving their assurance that "the sportsmanship of your team is not in question." but it was not the end of the controversy. Larwood continued to be harshly barracked and when he left for home he bitterly stated that he never wanted to see Australia again. But ironically, he migrated to Australia in 1950, but his disgust was understandable for the much-publicised injuries to Oldfield and Woodfull were hardly his fault. Woodfull was hit twice - by balls directed on his off stump. As for Oldfield, who suffered a fractured skull, he had played the ball into his head. He openly blamed himself and the inadequacy of the Adelaide sight-screen. Larwood argued: "If I was bowling at the body how was it I kept hitting the wickets and getting l.b.w. decisions?" In fact he collected more than half his test wickets that way. Some cricket followers of the time considered that his bowling was no more dangerous than that of his partner Bill Voce whose deliveries often whistled round the ears of batsmen. Larwood was the No. 1 hero of England in Australia, taking 33 wickets in the five Tests and scoring 98 in the final Test. But back home he was still haunted by the bodyline controversy. The Aussies were due to tour England in 1934 and efforts were being made to settle the arguments before they arrived. Discussions led to an agreement between the M.C.C. and the Australian Board that "a form of bowling which was obviously a direct attack by a bowler upon the batsman would be an offence against the spirit of the game." There was no official ruling. It remained for captains to decide whether spirit of the game was being abused. But England captain Douglas Jardine, who had adopted these tactics, refused to play against Woodfull's Australian team. And then lion-hearted Larwood who has served his country so well, was left out of the England team! The world's fastest bowler denied, as was reported, that a foot injury kept him out of the team. He claimed that he was 100 per cent fit and argued that he had been sacrificed to political consideration. And with Larwood out of the England side, Australia regained the Ashes. Whatever the facts, the great Test career of Harold Larwood now came to an abrupt end. And while the brilliant tactician Jardine was appointed captain of the M.C.C. team in India in 1934-35, he never again played against Australia. |
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