'Bodyline' furore of 1932-33 the Olympics of mega controversies

By A.C De Silva

Bodyline furore of 1932-33 became a major international incident involving politicians of two countries, like the underarm incident in the Melbourne one-day international between Australia and New Zealand in 1981.

One can write a book on Bodyline and still leave some aspects untouched and unexplained. Why was Bodyline conceived who planned it, who executed it, against whom was it targeted? And more importantly, why was it called 'Bodyline' and who named it Bodyline?

The bowling method of the Englishmen came to be called Bodyline, a word which still makes an emotional impact on Australians well over fifty years later. The Bodyline story is the story of an attempt by a fiercely determined captain of England, Douglas Jardine, to overcome the most amazing batsman the world has seen, Don Bradman, and the extraordinary consequences which flowed from the attempt. When film producers came to recreate the story in a television series, they had no need to dramatist it. The drama was already there.

Many versions to story

There are many versions to this compelling story. The most plausible one is that the origin of Bodyline grew out of the invincibility of Bradman as a batsman on Australia's tour of England in 1930. In the five Tests the 21 year-old, amassed 974 runs (still a record after 82 years) at an average of 139.14, including a century, two double centuries and a triple century.

They were not just ball scores, they were innings by a master batsman who gave bowlers no hope. His 254 in the Lord's Test in 339 minutes with 25 ballers is recognised as one of the best innings ever played in Test history. In the following Test at leeds, he hit 336, then the highest Test score.

He smashed 309 runs on the first day, 105 before lunch, 115 between lunch and tea and 89 in the final 90 minutes session.

How to curb in the Ashes in Australia in 1932-33 was England's biggest problem, her priority number one. It is generally believed that Jardine (alone or with others) devised this master plan of transmitting leg theory to Bodyline. Both there terms need definitions and few experts agree on the correct usage. Leg theory is basically bowling to a packed leg-side field in order to put a brake on the batsman's opportunities to score. Bodyline is its civil Stepbrother, bowling fast persistent short-pitched deliveries at the batsman's body (hip, shoulder and head) and having a double cluster of fielders on the leg side take catches off a missed or uninternational hook or pull shot.

Bodyline evolved from leg-theory bowling

Bodyline evolved from various forms of leg-therory bowling. It was being at the top of leg-theory's evolutionary tree. 'There were certain external similarities enta vast difference in spirit, according to Demiman. The Bodyline field consisted of a cordon of five closer fielders from leg-slip to silly mid-on and another two fielders near the long-leg boundary.

A brainchild of Jardine, the captain of the England team to Australia in 1932-33, assisted by the Nottinghamshire captain, A.W. Carr, this theory was practised against Bradman (among other Australian batsmen) with success where the chief executioner was super-quick Larwood and the venomous Voce Bradman, who was averaging 112.29 runs an innings in the 19 Tests prior to 1932, could average only 56.57 in four Tests in the Bodyline series. Moreover, of the seven times he was dismissed in the series spoken above, Larwood had claimed him four times.

Australian cricketers may have heard alarm bells ringing when the England squad selected four fast bowlers - Larwood, Billvoce, Gubby Allen and Bill Bowes - for the series. Bradman himself was suspicious as the wrote, when the personnel of the English team to Australia in 1932-33 was announced, there was the possibility of trouble because of the abnormal selection of four fast bowlers.

Pace battery chosen for purpose

"Larwood was sure that the pace battery of four was chosen for a purpose. There had never bear four speed merchants sent to Australia before,: he wrote in 'The Larwood Story', (1982), Don didn't like the balls rising on his body.... I Thought Bradman was a bit brightened of the ball that got up sharply.

Who coined the word 'Bodyline'? It is believed that cabling a match report to his newspaper from the Sydney Cricket ground, a journalist at Melbourne - Herald, condensed the phrase 'on the line of the body' to 'Bodyline'.

Even after 80 years, variations of the Bodyline keep cropping up whenever newer controversies make headlines, namely 'Bodyline' during the January 2008, Sydney Test between Australia and India.

Author Frith seemed up the dramatic series in his Wisden Cricket Monthly article in 2002.

'Even though there have been over 1,300 Test matches in the over 70 years that span since 'Bodyline', it remains the most dramatic Test series of them all. It incorporated the wild West shoot-out between the young Sheriff (Don Bradman from Bowral, NSW) and the narrow-eyed slinger (Harold Larwood) in London.

Jack Fingliton who played in the first three Tests of the Bodyline series and later became a cricket and political journalist wrote," I do not think there was one single batsman who played in most of those Bodyline games who ever afterwards recaptured his love for cricket.