Sports Classics Review No. 1
Possibly given what New Zealand's batsmen
are going to face in the second Test in Perth it is worth looking at the fast
bowling phenomenon that was 'Bodyline'.
Missing until recently from my cricket
library was a copy of David Frith's Bodyline
Autopsy that is surely the definitive book on the controversy that
threatened relations between Australia and England in the summer of 1932-33.
What gives Frith's treatment an advantage
is the benefit of time. One of the finest books by one of the participants was
undoubtedly Jack Fingleton's Cricket
Crisis. It had some distance between the events of those days and
publication, but Frith has been able to draw on a much more extensive resource
base to weave his story.
His account is largely chronological but it
has a context that makes it a fascinating look into the events.
Bodyline was the method of bowling deemed
appropriate to deal with the scourge of all bowlers of the era, Don Bradman.
The villain of the piece, England's captain
for the Ashes tour to Australia, Douglas Jardine had exclaimed while watching
film of the 1930 Ashes Test at The Oval where Bradman struggled with a damp
pitch, "I've got it! He's yellow!" And he wasn't referring to the
one-day uniform so common in the modern day.
He believed Bradman was afraid. Hence the
development of the leg-theory that would be labelled 'Bodyline', the result of
a newspaper reference by former Australian batsman and AFL footballer John
Worrall to Bill Voce's 'half-pitched slingers on the body line'.
Jardine developed an armoury capable of
meeting his tactical requirement, the Nottinghamshire bowlers Harold Larwood
and Bill Voce, backed by the slower but accurate Bill Bowes.
Bradman said from Canada, where he was
touring, when the England team was named that an 'avalanche of bumpers' would
be on the menu for the Australian batsmen. What he didn't foresee was the
packed leg-side field to cope with the chances that would come their way.
Jardine hadn't played in the 1930 Test
where Bradman was seen to be troubled, but he soon found out about it and had a
meeting with Larwood, Voce and their Nottinghamshire captain A W Carr to
discuss possible tactics.
Larwood later wrote that Jardine asked him
if he could bowl leg stump and make the ball come into the body forcing Bradman
to play to leg. Larwood said he could.
The stage was set for two supreme
contenders, Bradman with the bat and Larwood with the ball, to go at it.
What followed occupies much of Frith's
tale, augmented by contemporary and subsequence observations by participants
and journalists. It is woven into a fine tale not confined to the pitch, but to
the halls of power in both countries as diplomatic skills are required to
resolve the situation.
Jardine in the end got his way and secured
the Ashes, but at what cost? For whatever reason the main contenders from the
England side, Jardine and Larwood played very little cricket in the future.
Hovering, sometimes in the foreground and
often in the background, was one of the team's two managers Pelham Warner,
whose place in the whole affair had an aspect of running with the hares and
hunting with the hounds.
The postscript is almost as intriguing as
the on-field action and lends a completeness to the story as Frith follows the
story to the end.
Was Bodyline a success? Well England won
the Ashes for the short-term success but in the longer term it would have to be
said that Australia's fury at the tactic made life easier for their players.
And Bradman still finished second in the averages for both teams at 56.57 while
his strike rate of 74.85 was still superior to all the other recognised batsmen
in the series.
What is a success is Frith's treatment and
a book worthy of a place in any sports library.
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