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Bodyline

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   Bill Woodfull evades a Bodyline ball.
   Enlarge
   Bill Woodfull evades a Bodyline ball.

   Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory, was a cricketing tactic
   devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of
   Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of
   Australia's Don Bradman. A Bodyline bowler deliberately aimed the
   cricket ball at the body of the opposing batsman, in the hope of
   creating legside deflections that could be caught by one of several
   fielders located in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

   This tactic caused several injuries to Australian players and led to
   ill feeling between the two national teams. The controversy eventually
   spilled into the diplomatic arena. Over the next two decades, several
   of the Laws of Cricket were changed to prevent this kind of tactic
   being used again.

Genesis of Bodyline

   The Australian cricket team toured England in 1930. Australia won the
   five- Test series 2-1, with Don Bradman scoring an astounding 974 runs
   at a batting average of 139.14, an aggregate record that stands to this
   day.

   After the series, Douglas Jardine – who was later appointed England's
   captain for the 1932–33 English tour of Australia – devised a plan with
   Nottinghamshire captain Arthur Carr and his two fast bowlers Harold
   Larwood and Bill Voce to combat Bradman's extraordinary skills. At a
   meeting in London's Piccadilly Hotel, the Oxford-educated Jardine asked
   Larwood and Voce if they could bowl on leg stump and make the ball come
   up into the body of the batsman. The bowlers agreed they could, and
   that it might prove effective.

   Accompanying this bowling line would be a cordon of close fielders set
   on the leg side. The result was that the batsman had to choose to
   either take evasive action from balls aimed at his body and head, or
   attempt to fend the ball away with the bat, possibly giving catching
   chances to the close-set leg side field. A similar tactic, known as leg
   theory, has been employed previously, by slow bowlers such as Fred Root
   and Armstrong, but with more conventionally pitched and much slower
   deliveries. It was occasionally an effective tactic, but sometimes made
   for boring watching, like the modern tactic of leg-spin or left-arm
   bowlers bowling into the rough area of the pitch outside leg stump to
   restrict a batsman's scoring opportunities.

   Larwood and Voce practised the plan over the next two seasons of
   English county cricket, terrorising their opponents as Nottinghamshire
   finished near the top of the competition each year. By the time the
   English team left for Australia in October 1932, Larwood and Voce,
   along with Bill Bowes from Yorkshire, had perfected their attack.

The 1932–33 English tour

   The English players first tried their tactic in a first-class tour
   match against an Australian XI in Perth, a game in which Jardine rested
   and gave the captaincy duties to his deputy Bob Wyatt. Seeing the
   bruising balls hit the Australian batsmen on several occasions in this
   game and the next angered the spectators.

   The English players and management were consistent in referring to
   their tactic as fast leg theory because they considered it to be a
   variant of the established — and relatively harmless — leg theory
   tactic. The Australian press came up with the far more evocative and
   inflammatory term, Bodyline (see below). The reporting of the series in
   England described the tactic as fast leg theory, which caused serious
   misunderstandings, as neither the English public nor the Board of the
   Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) — the governing body of English cricket —
   could understand why the Australians were complaining about a commonly
   used tactic and came to the conclusion that the Australian cricket
   authorities and public were sore losers and "squealers".

   In the Test matches, Bradman countered Bodyline by moving toward the
   leg side, away from the line of the ball, and cutting it into the
   vacant off side field. Whilst this was dubious in terms of batting
   technique, it seemed the best way to cope with the barrage, and Bradman
   averaged a creditable 56.57 in the series (compared to his career
   average of 99.94), while being struck above the waist by the ball only
   once. His team-mates fared worse, being unable to compile large scores.
   Bert Oldfield is hit in the head after Harold Larwood's delivery
   deflected off his bat.
   Bert Oldfield is hit in the head after Harold Larwood's delivery
   deflected off his bat.

   Whilst moderately successful as a tactic (England regained the Ashes
   with a 4-1 margin), the Australian crowds abhorred Bodyline as vicious
   and unsporting. Matters came to a head in the third Test at Adelaide,
   when Larwood struck Australian captain Bill Woodfull above the heart
   and fractured wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield's skull (although this was
   from a top edge off a traditional non-Bodyline ball and Oldfield
   admitted it was his fault). Tension and feelings ran so high that a
   riot was narrowly averted as police stationed themselves between the
   players and enraged spectators. However, at the time England were not
   using the Bodyline tactics. Woodfull was struck when he was bent over
   his bat and wicket – and not when upright as often imagined. The crowd
   was incensed, and popular imagination blurred, when Jardine ordered his
   team to move to Bodyline positions immediately after Woodfull's injury.

   In a famous quotation, Bill Woodfull said to the England tour manager
   Pelham Warner, when the latter came to express his sympathy for
   Woodfull's injury:


   Bodyline

   I don't want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One
               is trying to play cricket and the other is not.


   Bodyline

   At the end of the fourth day's play the Australian Board of Control for
   Cricket sent the following cable to the MCC in London:


   Bodyline

    Bodyline bowling assumed such proportions as to menace best interests
    of game, making protection of body by batsmen the main consideration.
   Causing intensely bitter feeling between players as well as injury. In
   our opinion is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once likely to upset
         friendly relations existing between Australia and England.


   Bodyline

   Bert Oldfield staggers away with his skull fractured.
   Enlarge
   Bert Oldfield staggers away with his skull fractured.

   Jardine however insisted his tactic was not designed to cause injury
   and that he was leading his team in a sportsmanlike and gentlemanly
   manner, arguing that it was up to the Australian batsmen to play their
   way out of trouble. It seems he did genuinely regret any injuries
   sufferred, as he secretly sent a telegram of sympathy to Bert
   Oldfield's wife and arranged for presents to be given to his young
   daughters.

   The situation escalated into a diplomatic incident between the
   countries as the MCC — supported by the British public and still over
   the opinion that their fast leg theory tactic was harmless — took
   serious offence at being branded "unsportsmanlike" and demanded a
   retraction. With World War I still fresh in people's memories and the
   first rumblings of World War II beginning, many people saw Bodyline as
   fracturing an international relationship that needed to remain strong.

   Jardine, and by extension the entire English team, threatened to
   withdraw from the fourth and fifth Tests unless the Australian Board
   withdrew the accusation of unsporting behaviour. Public reaction in
   both England and Australia was outrage directed at the other nation.
   The Governor of South Australia, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, who was in
   England at the time, expressed his concern to British Secretary of
   State for Dominion Affairs James Henry Thomas that this would cause a
   significant impact on trade between the nations.

   The standoff was settled only when Australian Prime Minister Joseph
   Lyons met with members of the Australian Board and outlined to them the
   severe economic hardships that could be caused in Australia if the
   British public boycotted Australian trade. Given this understanding,
   the Board withdrew the allegation of unsportsmanlike behaviour two days
   before the fourth Test, thus saving the tour.

   The English team continued to bowl Bodyline in the remaining two Tests,
   but slower pitches meant the Australians, although frequently bruised,
   sustained no further serious injuries.

Bodyline in England

   Bodyline continued to be bowled occasionally in the 1933 English season
   — most notably by Nottinghamshire, who had Carr, Voce and Larwood in
   their team. This gave the English crowds their first chance to see what
   all the fuss was about. Ken Farnes, the Cambridge University fast
   bowler also bowled it in the University Match, hitting a few Oxford
   batsmen.

   Jardine himself had to face Bodyline bowling in a Test match. The West
   Indian cricket team toured England in 1933, and, in the second Test at
   Old Trafford, Jackie Grant, their captain, decided to try Bodyline. He
   had a couple of fast bowlers, Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine.
   Facing Bodyline tactics for the first time, England first suffered,
   falling to 134 for 4, with Wally Hammond being hit on the chin, though
   he recovered to continue his innings. Then Jardine himself faced
   Martindale and Constantine. Jardine never flinched. He played right
   back to the bouncers, standing on tiptoe, and, no doubt partly because
   he didn't care for the hook shot, played them with a dead bat. Whilst
   the Old Trafford pitch was not as suited to Bodyline as the hard
   Australian wickets, Martindale did take 5 for 73, but Constantine only
   took 1 for 55. Jardine himself made 127, his only Test century.

   In the second West Indian innings, Clark bowled Bodyline back to the
   West Indians, taking 2 for 64. The match in the end was drawn; it was
   also the highest-profile game in which Bodyline was bowled in England.

Origin of the term "Bodyline"

   Although Jack Worrall claimed that he had invented the term "Bodyline",
   it is more likely that it was coined by Sydney journalist Hugh Buggy
   who worked for The Sun in 1932, and who happened to be a colleague of
   Jack Fingleton. Buggy sent a telegram to his newspaper from the Test
   after a day's play. As a substitute for "in the line of the body" he
   used the term "bodyline", to keep the cost down, and the new term
   quickly became established.

Changes to the Laws of Cricket

   As a direct consequence of the 1932–33 tour, the MCC introduced a new
   rule to the Laws of Cricket in 1935. Specifically, umpires were now
   given the power — and the responsibility — to intervene if they
   considered a bowler was deliberately aiming at a batsman with intent to
   injure.

   Some 25 years later, another rule was introduced banning the placement
   of more than two fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square
   leg. Although this rule was not principally intended to prevent leg
   theory, it diluted the potency of short-pitched leg theory, as it
   allowed for fewer catching positions on the leg side.

   Later law changes, under the heading of "Intimidatory Short Pitched
   Bowling", also restricted the number of " bouncers" which may be bowled
   in an over. Nevertheless, the tactic of intimidating the batsman is
   still used to an extent that would have been shocking in 1933, although
   it is less dangerous now because today's players wear helmets and
   generally far more protective gear. The West Indies teams of the 1980s,
   which regularly fielded a bowling attack comprising some of the best
   fast bowlers in cricket history, were perhaps the most feared
   exponents.

Cultural impact of Bodyline

   Following the 1932–33 series, several authors – including many of the
   players involved – released books expressing various points of view
   about Bodyline. Many argued that it was a scourge on cricket and must
   be stamped out, while some did not see what all the fuss was about.

   The MCC asked Harold Larwood to sign an apology to them for his bowling
   in Australia, making his selection for England again conditional upon
   it. Larwood was furious at the notion, pointing out that he had been
   following orders from his upper-class captain, and that was where any
   blame should lie. Larwood never played for England again, and became
   vilified in his own country. In retrospect, this event is seen by many
   as the first step in breaking down the class distinction in English
   cricket. Douglas Jardine always defended his tactics and in a book he
   wrote about the tour described allegations that the England bowlers
   directed their attack with the intention of causing physical harm as
   stupid and patently untruthful.

   Outside the sport, there were significant consequences for
   Anglo-Australian relations, which remained strained, until the outbreak
   of World War II made cooperation paramount. Business between the two
   countries was adversely affected as citizens of each country displayed
   a preference for not buying goods manufactured in the other. Australian
   commerce also suffered in British colonies in Asia: the North China
   Daily News published a pro-Bodyline editorial, denouncing Australians
   as sore losers. An Australian journalist reported that several business
   deals in Hong Kong and Shanghai were lost by Australians because of
   local reactions.

   English immigrants in Australia found themselves shunned and persecuted
   by locals, and Australian visitors to England were treated similarly.
   Some years later a statue of Prince Albert in Sydney was vandalised,
   with an ear being knocked off and the word "BODYLINE" painted on it.

   Both before and after World War II, numerous satirical cartoons and
   comedy skits were written, mostly in Australia, based on events of the
   Bodyline tour. Generally, they poked fun at the English.

   In 1984, Australia's Network Ten produced a television miniseries
   titled Bodyline: It's Just Not Cricket, dramatising the events of the
   1932–33 English tour of Australia. It starred Gary Sweet as Don
   Bradman, Hugo Weaving as Douglas Jardine, Jim Holt as Harold Larwood,
   Rhys McConnochie as Pelham Warner and Frank Thring as Jardine's mentor
   Lord Harris. The series took some liberties with historical accuracy
   for the sake of drama, including a depiction of angry Australian fans
   burning an English flag at the Adelaide Test, an event which was never
   documented. Larwood, having emigrated to Australia in 1950 to escape
   ongoing vilification in England, received several threatening and
   obscene phone calls after the series aired.

   To this day, the Bodyline tour remains one of the most significant
   events in the history of cricket, and strong in the consciousness of
   many cricket followers. In a poll of cricket journalists, commentators,
   and players in 2004, the Bodyline tour was ranked the most important
   event in cricket history.

   As of 2006 the Bodyline Controversy is an assessable topic in the New
   South Wales HSC.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodyline"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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