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| Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
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Birth of Bodyline by A. C. de Silva Some years back it was somewhat upsetting to lernt and also read about what happened to Indian cricketer Nari Contractor. He received a very bad head injury in the West Indies. So, many batsmen in world cricket in the past could have been in Contractor's place. The short-pitched fast ball in line with the body is as old as over-arm bowling itself. It has done nothing else but create ill-feeling and it seemed as if it was prevalent in cricket in the thirties, when England, under the captaincy of Jardine, based their attack upon the short-pitching methods of Larwood and Voce. It was in this period that the term 'bodyline'originated. According to past records, the first mention of fast bumpers came into being around the turn of the century. Ernie Jones, a famous Australian fast bowler, was reputed to have pitched one short that slipped through the beard of the immortal Dr. W. G. Grace. It is interesting to read of Jones's reaction. "Sorry, Doctor," he said, "but she slipped." That seems to suggest that it was not the "done" thing to bowl short at a batsman. Jones was quick to apologise. In the 1932-33 era of Larwood and Voce, nobody apologised. It was very noticeable that what the English intentions were under Jardine, that any apologies would have been hypocritical and superfluous. Had there been no Bradman, there would have been no bodyline. Old staggers are positive regarding this. That there ever emerged such a vicious style of bowling as bodyline is, in itself, a tribute to Don Bradman's greatness but the scars it has left continue even to this day as Contractor's head would have shown. The Englishmen first met Bradman in Australia in 1928-29. He made 123 and 112 in Tests against Chapman's team (for all that he was dropped after his first Test); he made 132 for N.S.W. against the same side and he made 157 the next season against an M.C.C. team passing through to New Zealand. These innings, alone, were sufficient to show the English that they had stumbled against a cricket prodigy but his previous innings faded into comparative insignificance when he got to England in 1930. He paralysed English cricket, making Test scores of 334, 254 and 131 and 236, 205, 191, 185 and 117 in county games. If one never saw Bradman, and if one didn't comprehend the way in which he dominated cricket, one could never understand bodyline. It was conceived and nurtured for him. The only signs of discomfort Bradman showed on the 1930 tour of England happened at the Oval in the final Test. Lardood bowled on a pitch made a little dangerous by rain and it was noticeable that Bradman was a little unhappy when the ball flew high. That impression stuck in English minds. It was confirmed, when the South African Herby Taylor, went to England after touring Australia in 1931-32. Taylor, as befitting a member of the old school, was critical of Bradman's technique. He argued that Bradman was incorrect when playing back defensively. Bradman turned full-face to the ball; Taykor argued that he should be side-face. It was just as well for the Springboks that Bradman was deficient somewhere or other because he made scores of 135, 226, 219, 112, 167 and 299 not out against the team of which Taylor was a member. Like every other team that played against Bradman, the South Africans got tired of the look of him and so, towards the end of his 299 not out innings, Bell bowled some bouncers at Bradman in Adelaide. Bradman didn't like them. He didn't bat on a rain-damaged pitch in the final Test in Melbourne and the story goes that Taylor took back to English with him that Bradman wasn't overfound of bouncers. The bodyline basis of the English attack in Australia of 1932-33 series was premeditated. It was definitive in its purpose to curb Bradman. One had to be present on the grounds to hear the hooting and the furious crowd scenes as the Australians were being hit by Larwood and Voce but Jardine seemed to be a stubborn personality. He didn't ease the barrage for all that his manager was Plum Warner, an institution of the M.C.C., so to speak, who almost caused the Oval eaters to fall in his anger when Bowes bowled bodyline against Jack Hobbs at the Oval just before his team came to Australia. "Somebody will get killed - it isn't cricket - it should stopped at once," wrote Warner. Bodyline caused the greatest upset in international cricket. It threatened at one time to disrupt the tenor of the Tests between England and Australia but the English finally capitulated after Larwood had bowled a little of the theory against fellow countrymen and after Constantine had put a few unhappy moments in English bodies. Bodyline was based upon fear. It was meant to make a batsman consider his safety first. It was a negation of cricket because it denied all the batting artistry of the game. Some Australians fared no better, and no worse, against it than their English counterparts. Continued next week |
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