ABC Bodyline - Its Just Not Cricket

there are two teams out there one is playing cricket the other is making no attempt to do so this normally gentle crowd of Adelaide seemed to be on the verge of reroll in the England players later said that they they were sort of working out ways of grabbing a stamp to defend themselves and crowd came swarming over the over the picket the headmaster of paradigm was whether the Imperial masters were cheats or not but Australians at that time always expected Englishmen to behave like gentlemen they suddenly turned out then Englishmen did not behave like jet Li now word is faster today than ever and this slow-motion study reveals his actions very clearly and Falls to a lake pad which standing perfectly in his only spot a bradman knew very well that everything that was being organized by MCC by Gardein and the place battery was aimed at him it was indeed an assault on our Don Bradman he was the most cherished object an old wood stove and that just heightened of the shock factor I think body plan is the most emotive word in the whole world of cricket which is saying something it's so long ago but it was so devastating to Englund Australian relations Roxy Wilson did make his famous remark when he heard that Jardine had been appointed captain he said well we may win the ashes that we may well lose the Dominion the year is 1930 the world teachers on the verge of a great economic depression triggered by the Wall Street stock market crash in October 1929 it was in this time of fear and great uncertainty the two of Australia's greatest sporting icons would make their indelible mark on the national psyche in the 1930 Melbourne Cup a voice by the name of Pamela would win the race that stocked the nation carrying sixty two point five kilograms over four kilograms more than any other four-year-old Paul had ever carried in the cup add 11 to 8 on fire lap was the shortest price favorite to win the Melbourne Cup that very same year on the cricket fields of England a diminutive 21 year old country boy from the New South Wales town barrel was hitting his way into the record books during the 1930 tour of England young Don Bradman scored 2961 at an average of 98.6 7 in the 10th matches he scored 974 run at a phenomenal average of 130 9.14 at the spiritual home of cricket Lords bradman scored a Chancellor's 250 for at least he scored 309 in a single day's play on his ways were then record 334 in the final test at The Oval Bradman scored 232 the greatest challenge in cricket history since WG Grace was DG Bratton and it was a problem that borrowed a lot of English cricket people because it really did seem that problems perhaps one day you're going to make 500 in a Test match would England ever win again cricket was the the game England invented but England had always considered itself to be the master at and then suddenly here out of some strange back blocks place-name barrel and there should be a man who was threatening to overthrow the health culture with English cricket English upper class that was offended by this pipsqueak from New South Wales coming and knocking at all around the ground that was where the problem was people who rule that lords were all very eminent men they were lawyers politicians Lords they represented the cream of English society and I suppose though cared about England's image we have to bring down this man Redmond to basic size if we don't the ashes are gone for 10 or 15 years so how do we do it watching further in his armor Edmonds batting lowered and get anything the man that the MC seen charged with the responsibility of taming the Bradman Colossus and restoring the prestige of English cricket was Douglas Robert Jardine a definition of cricket which is always struck me as being the only were the definition of cricket it was described this time New Zealand when he said it was their beautiful beautiful game that is battle and service and sport and art my father was born in India where his father was a judge in Bombay and from a small boy he was sent across to the UK for his education first at Horace Hill prep school and then at Winchester and then on to Oxford and in all that time he only would get back to India to his parents once a year in the long summer holidays Winchester College was founded in 1382 by the then Bishop of Winchester who came from a town of village nearby called Wycombe and was known as William of Wycombe they decided at some stage when old boys of schools were accorded names that wickedest was what a boy from Winchester College should be called he was of course here when when the school was wracked with the first world war and daily weekly the death toll of recent wickedness was unfolded it must have been a terrible time the sum of the accounts of the conditions there and it just back a belief they were they were expected to run naked in all weathers out to the bathhouse you know when it was snowing and and that there seem to be quite a lot of time set aside during the days of corporal punishment during the First World War there were some very serious food shortages in addition to which there was a certain amount of enforced labor on local farms as part of the war effort so that was his fascist childhood the Spartan upbringing in the austere surroundings of Winchester College one of writtens oldest public schools would shape the young Douglass Jardine's philosophy towards life and cricket I think he was marked by his education at Winchester and the feeling of of being of service that's instilled into students there and he was perhaps rather establishment I think he would say in out o'clock these public schools were was set up to educate young men to go out and run the Empire and he was very much a product of that that system Badman seems to be bodyline story is said to have had its genesis during the fifth test at The Oval in 1930 Bradman was batting in a very important partnership with twenty-year-old Archie Jackson after a lengthy delay because of rain the players returned to the field of play England fast bowler Harold lowered began to make the ball fly on the moist pitch Archie Jackson did get hit black and blue he made a very valiant 73 Redmond creamed on to 232 and George stuck with being the wicket keeper noted the Bradman seem to be flinching and this was so until he put his feet only where he wanted them to now he's putting them where the bowler wanted them to be and they they weren't always in line he didn't get hit Archie Jackson did my father told me that they had watched films of Bradman batting to try and discover any small weakness that he might have because nobody seemed able to stop him from making runs he was thought to have flinched when facing Harold lowered while he went on to score 230 I'd say obviously wasn't struggling too much but jardian got a film of this innings and at the moment when fragment flinched Giardina suppose I said that's it he's yellow jardim would base his plan of attack on a form of bowling known as leg theory a purely defensive tactic that proved successful in curbing the batting of the immortal Victor Trumper some 20 years earlier Frank Foster had polled so well for England in Australia back in nineteen eleven 12 with SF bans now Foster was not attempting to intimidate to Victor Trumper he was pitching the ball outside the off and wrapping him on the thigh because the ball was moving so sharply and he had a leg side field and these are the things that Jardine studied there's well the difference between legs here and body line legs here is something just to keep you too shut you up bowling down the leg side to an egg side field jardim called his plan fast leg theory but the quicker twirled would later come to know it as body line it involved a fast bowler bowling short rising deliveries at the batsman pitching the ball on the line of the leg stars aim is to make six fields one would be placed in a leg trap waiting to take a catch from an unsuccessful defensive stroke or a mistimed hook shot should the batsman be successful in hooking the riding delivery over the waiting leg trap two fields Minh were placed in the outfield on the boundary to accept a catch there was certainly nothing to stop a captain putting 11 men on the neck side if that was what he thought was appropriate indeed some of the leg Theory the foster leg serious stuff an awful lot of people turned up on the leg side and that was not against the law it was only later on after the changes as a result of the body lighter that the law started governing the number of people who could be our number fields on the neck side the two men chosen to spearhead Jardine's plan would be the opening pair from Nottingham Herald Lord and Bill vows he was born in nanka Gate which is a little village in not even sure it's about 12 miles from Nottingham and it was a coal mining area and so his father and his grandfather before him worked down the mine at that time all that mine owners were very very keen on cricket so they really encouraged their young - to play cricket and anyone who did play cricket usually got a fairly cushy job in the mind was very hard arduous life which would displace even the strongest of man and oh yes I would imagine you'd be thrilled to to get out of that environment yes well it was in the summer of 1932 when the tour was imminent and Jardine felt it was time to sit down with our FAQ our who's a key figure he was a nodding ship captain who had already employed lowered and votes in using bodyline tactics in county cricket not at all popular either but they caused quite a bit of damage in the county championship ranks so they sat down at the Grill Room of the Piccadilly Hotel in Piccadilly the West End of London car bar wooden base and Jardine and talked it all over but he would stop at nothing to win him he was so determined he'd seen her England had suffered under the dawn in England in 1913 he wasn't going to have it the degree to which he had the blessing and support of MCC is an area where we can only speculate he was suppose yes that they selected this man back in 1931 as the leader for the next Ashes encounter he had all the qualities they were seeking and they felt probably they had ammunition too in the form of these two fast bowlers and quite a good batting lineup as well so I think the nobs at Lord's had started thinking about this well before the tour actually got underway it was quite clear he told us it had all been agreed worked out and agreed with the MCC but that was the way the game was going to be played and it was the only way to stop Batman from getting runs or might be any way that they would stop him from getting runs so I think he he he kept to what had been agreed and and got all the blame probably Freud went whistles just gone we had wonderful send-off and all the way down the line when we get to Australia we don't forget the good wishes of those who've been kind enough to come and see at all we hope they will do as they hope we would with rocky Wilson a much loved and respected dom as we call them here for many years who played cricket for England was the master in charge of cricket in Jardine's time he was asked by someone of his view on Jardine's appointment as captain of England to which he replied we may win the ashes but we might lose a Dominion Gaby Allan said that he would say we have to hate them that's the only way we're going to beat them and coming out and thought - yeah do we really need to you know I mean we want to win sure that and there was this kind of intensity on the way out on the royalties he summoned his team and he announced that Don Bergman from Jeremy's will not be called Don Bradman or Don or Brad hland he recalled the little bastard the arrival of the 1932-33 mcc team was greeted with excitement and eager anticipation these were the days when Australia was still a Dominion of the British Empire an Ashes tour was seen as an ideal way to further strengthen and enhance the bonds of Empire these sentiments were reflected in the words of Australia's captain bill Woodford you have sent us a great size but that's wrong that's just what we experienced expect of the home country when all of the motherland always put up a strenuous fight as a father and as a school teacher and a headmaster principal there was that strict disciplinary streak and his word was just there was no other alternative he just had to obey he was a man of absolute stern principled gentle nature quality in so many ways quiet thoughtful serene and you could only feel that Australian cricket had been in safe hands when would fool had been the Australian captain in 32 33 Douglas Jardine had previously toured Australia in 1928-29 as a member of Percy Chapman's very successful team one that has been rated by many as possibly the strongest MCC side to visit Australia in the 20th century Jardine soon found himself the target of incessant arrogance from the vocal Australian crowd his habit of betting in a Harlequin cap raised the ire of many of the working-class spectators Harlequin in something it's an Oxford University Club and all blues and those who are near to the opposite side are made Harlequins and it's a famous club in expect many years and of course it is it's a colorful and beautiful curve I'm sure my father did irritate them and irritates them in other ways by wearing his Harlequin cap and that sort of thing and I think that he did that as much to make himself believe that he was going to succeed I think it was to steel himself to to kiss the Harlequin cap of course was a lovely reminder of the elitist status of those who had come from the right University and again it may have been a little bit this business of just reminding the natives that one had come from a certain status one was of officer cast and one was not going to be torn down by the crude and uncouth bera king of these people who insisted on shouting rude things at one the backing got ya got more and more personal as the tour progressed and it really did get to him at sydney he played an innings which brandman has got described no less as one of the best displays of stroke play that he'd ever seen Charlene's got about 140 big hundred and he was bericht a lot and as he he came into the dressing room I was told this by someone who was in the dressing room and Patsy hendren was was going out to bat and and rude and said to Jardine they they don't seem to like you over here mr. Jardine and Charlene said it is mutual the NCC's bowling tactics were revealed for the first time during one of the early matches against an Australian eleven in Melbourne grabbed and played in this match and was quick to reveal his confirm to his New South Wales teammates when he returned to Sydney I can particularly remember Don Bradman coming and we're playing Victoria and Don wasn't playing at that stage we hadn't seen the English team play and he said I want to tell you fellows he said do you have no idea what this son was going to be like he said you discount his love when the NCC played New South Wales many of the batsmen took a pounding and the writing was on the wall however there was nothing in the laws of cricket as they stood at the time to prevent the use of such intimidatory tactics we just saw what we saw that was a leg shine fell and the bowlers were bowling bumpers and we could visualize the fact I didn't find any the tests in it series to visualize the fact that has been pretty tough fighter to score runs however the prime focus of the NCC's tactics Don Bradman was not certain to play in the Test matches because of a contractual dispute with the Board of Control Don Bradman had a contract with to UE and FJ farmers and also with the Sydney Sun newspaper and the board said you can write for them and he said well I'll not play cricket then and he was allowed to his employers of the son said well you don't have to ride for assay exonerated him you play cricket regard Europe and dashes series at a time in Australia without Don Bradman playing for Australia when something was almost unthinkable after what happened like he says after where he'd been received back in Australia after 1932 just think what might have happened if bradman hadn't played at all in 1932-33 would we even have seen bodyline would we be talking about it now it's a nice thought more shocks were to follow on the eve of the first Test match Redmond was ruled unfit to play because of a throat infection and a dose of the flu interest in the Test series was unprecedented a huge crowd packed into the Sydney Cricket Ground to witness firsthand the fury of the bodyline assault it was certainly a sense of anticipation the air was sort of electric was the greatest crowds I think the games are the scene they just flocked to see it and there was an element of sort of danger in the play United States which I had never seen before or since they didn't know what to call this form of attack bounces bolder the backs from the villains field it's waiting for Perry catch it was called direct attack shark attack Australian cricketer school gets Connors but a journalist who was an X Test cricketer from 1899 called Jack Worrell was riding in the Australasian which was a weekly and he talked about the bowling being on the line of the body this had other people thinking Hugh buggy in the Melbourne Herald then said on the body line and then Ray Robinson who was a young sub editor in The Herald officers joined the words together and although it didn't appear in the headline on that first historic afternoon in that edition somewhere in the story was body - line and a word was born but is with us still they were all timeless tests so you could not play for a draw there had to be result so there's no point in ducking and weaving and letting ball go past you had to try and score runs because the only way to win that game is by scoring more runs than your opponents so that was quite important factor and make yourself you actually had to play the ball rather than duck enter 22-year old Stan McKay who would play the ends of his life all the family have come up from Grenville mum and dad on the three brothers and he sat with from while the openers did best and when it was time to pad up he said to his dad if I get hit out there dad made sure mom doesn't jump the fence McCabe hooked my would have both to worship with launching a courageous the folk on the body line bowling delighted the huge crowd stand was utterly fearless shorter they've all that in the heart or evil thing and they'll live forget the moment when he he displayed one or two lovely hooks and the salesman sort of backing everywhere and lowered came up involved and and the stand sort of let the ball go and just as it was flashing like this caressed it who slips to the fence well I've never had such a roar go up they it was one of the finest and the most dramatic innings over scene McCabe went on to school 187 not out in Australia total of just 360 this heroic innings is regarded as one of the finest in the history of Test cricket and had not stand McCabe made that astonishing 187 not out where you had luck he admitted that you needed luck it could be that the the to love ground will halt somehow but what Stan have unfortunately proved was that with a bit of luck you could make runs against it and if only bradman have played in that test and it made runs to perhaps Jardine with a rethought despite McCabe's remarkable defiance England went on to win the first test comfortably by 10 wickets much discussion now centered on whether Australia would retaliate and give the MCC batsman a barrage of balford with a leg side field in place I can't see Bill would forever as he would have considered I'm sure stooping to using retaliatory tactics by trying the lesser Australian bowlers as an Australian version of bodyline bowlers he was just not the man to do it I feel he felt too strongly against it and while a Vic Richardson almost certainly would have done it if he'd been captain and one or two others may well have done but he was Victor Richardson wanting retaliation and victim one of the few things that he said to me about body line and about cricket was don't believe that rubbish that they say that Australia didn't have the fast bowlers to hand it back he said we had the fast bowlers to give them back body line and he said I know that they didn't want to face body line he said because I overheard a couple of the English batsmen talking and they said if Australia bowlers at us we're going to tell the captain to stop it because we can't afford to get hit in the head because we're professional cricketers we can't afford to be out of the game for six months because it's our living down the drain and Vic said I was saying to would fall we've got to give it back to them and I'll that'll stop it that'll bring it to an end really quickly but he said would Phil was too much of a gentleman and he believed that it wasn't the right thing and so it didn't happen had victory to some being in charge I think that Australia would have retaliated and it may have stopped it and it may also have made it an even uglier series if that were possible and it could have rent Australia and England apart for who knows how many years that was probably dad's greatest contribution to the game of cricket one would wondered really does where his cricket would have finished if they'd been retaliation by the Australians Bradman returned for the second Test in Melbourne a then-record cloud of 64,000 back into the MCG - welcome back their prodigal son he was teared all the way to the wicket a sports star like Bradman in the time of depression was the man who was going to lead us into a promised land of if not prosperity at least success over England so you can imagine that enormous cauldron of the MCG which is still the most thrilling centrepiece for sporting drama how that must have been set for battle on that day so he took strike and Bilbo's the big bespectacled York Sherman is at the end of his not unduly long run and he wanted a bowl but the cheering went on at home so to pass the time Bilbo's just moved a fielder around on the square league fence don't ever notice this and probably felt was bound to be a bouncer Australia's Savior Radley without first Borg you could have heard a pin drop the only noise pound he was Jody and I made on hopping around like a wild man he lost his dignity just for those few seconds and I suppose he thought what more could a man wish after all that planning we got him first ball it was a different story in the second innings this time crowd man pulled the first ball he received ironically again from Bilbo's for four runs the crowd let out a deafening war the battle would underway Bradford attacked a bowling at every opportunity every run was cheered his much anticipated century was greeted with volcanic a floor when Australia's last man Bert ironmonger was run out bradman remained 103 not out Australia went on to win the second Test by 111 runs Australia's national hero contained the bogey of bodyline or so many thought the series was now levelled at one all Don Bradman privately lobbied members of the Australian Board of Control to make an official protest against the MCCS bodyline tactics his request was ignored presumably that second innings of Melbourne did make people feel all's well the daughters in his heaven and we're okay the band has shown us that body line can be played he's got a century surely the English will give up the tactics because it's not doing them any good and we'll get back to a normal sort of Test series and the expectation must have been enormous that things were going to settle down but Australia we're going to win controversy over body line bowling would erupt during the third max in a delay what will become the most infamous of all test matches got underway rather ominously on Friday the 13th in front of a huge crowd for a working day of thirty nine thousand three hundred that number would swell to a record of fifty thousand nine hundred and sixty two on the Saturday a delayed as is well known risk the most genteel Australian cricket grounds it's the most scenic the people I think least likely to bear a caucus Lee all day long you associate Adelaide with peace and tranquility and gentle Pleasant cricket and that's why what happened there in January 1933 was all the more shocking what on the first to stand his ground and that kind of a phone call which either way stomach of ninety miles an hour mother always said to me that she was very very concerned for dad's well-being always happy to see him home in one piece because there was no protective clothing Larwood bowling with the new ball to a conventional offside field struck a stray lien captain bill would form a very painful blow over the heart now he was no actor he stumbled from the Wickerman was a long time before he fell David resumed his innings he was really hurt he was white faced after referred who hit on the bet they were hard then Lara Jardine first of all turned round to darwood and said very loudly well bold Harold which is with Don Bradman standing next door from ie you're going to get it next that was the end of the over and after the subsequent over Lowood resumed and very theatrically Jardine switched to the fielders over to the body line field setting and that could have been the blackest moment of the whole series because Australia saw that as kicking a man when he was down this must have convinced would fall personally the team generally and the crowd that Jardine's ruthlessness went right beyond any sort of sporting approach to the game and must have done an enormous amount to inflame Adelaide feeling in that peaceful City this qualifies the whole body raising the idea was that la would would bowl with an Orthodox offside field when he were the new ball and it need only change around to a leg trap with the ogle it that was what made Adelaide so terribly important the Jardine's switched to a leg trap even when there was shines Phil on the ball the huge Saturday crown voiced its disapproval continually booing and hooting our glowered as he ran into ball when man was too 408 caught in the lake trap a flower would fall soon follow out 420 to the manager of the MCC team sir Pelham plum Warner visited bill would fall in the Australian dressing room Tom Warner and his assistant big pal array decided to make a courtesy visit to the Australian dressing room to sympathize for those two injuries with bill Whipple who had either just come out of the shower or was still on the massage table being treated with his huge bruise over his heart and plum Warner offered his sympathy and was astonished and shocked when the woofle just gave in to his emotions dad said I don't wish to discuss it why was the question and then can dad's well-known quote there are two teams out there one is playing cricket the other is making no attempt to do so then he added the game is too good to be spoilt and it's time that some people got out of it good afternoon in other words you're dismissed there's no doubt that dad felt just exactly what he said Woodville was hard hit by the approach of the England team he genuinely felt it to be unethical to tell an England team that they are not playing cricket in the 1930s was a pretty deep and damaging comment but it was a pointer to would falsify principals himself and how deeply he was hurt normos annotations were to follow when bill would falls dressing room comments were leaked to the press for the first time the general public were made aware in no uncertain terms that australia's captain bill would fall strongly disapproved of bodyline it would have been better probably if it hadn't been broadcast around the world and dad was very very upset that it was leaked out from the dressing room but once it was out there was nothing that could be done now the Australian team bar those two out in the middle I think were pawns furred and Richardson some of them from the balcony watching the game could just just about hear what was going on so you could say that who leaked it to the press it could have been anyone Jack singleton Lou as a professional journalist was a member of the Australian team and there were hints that he was the man who was involved and of course he denied it strongly but there is much feeling that it was leaked to Claude Corbett of the Sydney Sun and it so happened that Donald Bradman was a columnist for the same group many people have put two and two together of those two points and made four-fingered and accused Bratton bradman implied that it had to be Jack Fingal Dhin and it was a very unfortunate business in the two estimable men didn't speak for years Jack Singleton's book the cricket crisis is a well worth a good read so anything could get their hands on it that case into it pretty thoroughly the story has told me by Claude Corbett then writing for the son and a colleague of mine was this I got a ring on the phone that night at our hotel it was from Don Bradman who told me he wanted to tell me something Don was also working in a third sense for the son being associated with a broadcasting firm and a sports store we arranged a rendezvous on North Terrace and while we sat in his car he told me all about the Warner would fall incident it was too hot a story to run on my own and I gave it to all the press I was bequeathed a document by Gilbert meant it was the last surviving reporter on the body line series he wrote for Reuters the document that he left me was an article he wrote shortly before he died and he said that I was not to divulge the contents until after he and Sir Donald Bradman had passed on a Gilbert man died in 1997 in his 90s and this is the document that he left me it's a long article on the Adelaide dressing-room leaked but it concludes for some reason the story continued to intrigue me in 1996 I delved further into it I telephoned called Corbett's son Mac Corot performer Sun Herald journalist in Sydney he told me the cord had never mentioned the dressing-room incident to his family but I was in for a shock when I questioned his sister Helen Carney she told me that after Cordes death her mother confided in her that Claude had told her that Bradman had been the culprit confirming the secret of the after that meeting as alleged by Finland in 1978 now where does that leave us I believe implicitly in Brad man's denial and had no reason to doubt mrs. Carney story called Corbett was a down-to-earth hard-drinking convivial character fond of a practical joke perhaps he'd perpetrated a gigantic leg pull on singleton but it was scarcely conceivable would he do the same thing to his wife so we're left wondering and I think the whole 11 Australian well accepting would fall the 10 players are under suspicion but the thing is whoever put this story to the press is really a hero because at last at long last Australian knew that bill would fall resented what was happening he was angry about it and that gave every Australian in the Lane carte blanche now to stand up and say this is wrong and we all including bill would fall think sir and something's got to be done about it body line became an international incident when Australian wicketkeeper Burt old to his skull fractured after being struck in the head while attempting to hook a short fall from how lowered lowered was bowling to a conventional field at the time but as Australian captain bill would fall strode onto the ground to assist the injured Oldfield from the field the anger of the large crowd was reaching boiling point this normally gentle parable that always seemed to be on the verge of revolt authorities very well by the 2 or 400 amount of troopers back up remember any tumor sums that they were harmed I think they were very afraid then that they were afraid that that the crowd might come over and Gabi tell me once the jardine head as it were issue battled as a need said the Gabby he said if it does happen he said you take one stun for nice angel and so far as you can't defend a bill and he said I'll take now then he said I go off without that little thirties were rightly very very worried indeed the combination of poverty unemployment and this imperialist ungentlemanly English swine coming and knocking our heads off those combination was was lethal the Australian Board of Control hurriedly composed and dispatched a cable of protest to the MCC at Lord's body lying bowling assumes such proportions as to Menace best interests of game making protection of body by Paxman the main consideration causing intensely bitter feelings between players as well as injury in our opinion it is unsportsmanlike unless stopped at once likely to upset the friendly relations existing between Australia and England I think my father was appalled to have been called unsportsmanlike from his point of view he was carrying out instructions that had been agreed with the MCC before they had set out on the tour to accuse an English gentleman an MCC committee man and man wearing the bacon and eggs tie of being unsporting or any team under his name and don't forget in those days of course the touring team was in CC it was sent out by the Marylebone Cricket Club then to say that they considered the Vagos on sports were like to say that to lord Lewisham if I can't else from the Lord Chancellor the Lord Mayor of London and others and this is to accuse any had to be scraped off the wall and so the wonder these people these Colonials can't call us on sports when I ground area the MCC cabled their response we as a Marylebone Cricket Club deploy your cable we deprecate your opinion there has been unsportsmanlike play we have the fullest confidence in captain team and managers and are convinced that they would do nothing to infringe either the laws of cricket or the spirit of the game we have no evidence that our confidence is misplaced we hope the situation is not now as serious as your cable appears to indicate but if it is such as to jeopardize the good relations between England and Australian cricketers and you consider it desirable to cancel remainder of program we would consent but with great reluctance if you really want every with great regret we'll we'll cancel the rest of the tour knowing full well that the Australian border control couldn't possibly cancel the rest a tour because they needed the money Englishman far away and comforted their lounge rooms and in their committee rooms they had no idea what was going on it's not like today where we're seeing full-color live slow-motion coverage of games thousands of miles away they had to rely on letters and cables and they knew the lowered bulb bounces and Hebo fast were the Australians squealing couldn't they take it it was only perfect seven and a half and most people think that to be a fast ball that you have to be tall and strong there is one story where a little boy and his father came along to make dad his little boy looked up and stopped at the five foot seven and a half and said to dad he doesn't look like a killer he was perceived as the closest thing to a mass murderer he was after dawn he was after the rest of them now this had been it had been magnified to an extent that was truly frightening and the most frightening thing of all was the lack of comprehension because of the tyranny of distance the English gentleman had suddenly turned into a non English non gentleman and almost a cheat and that for the Imperial masters from the Australian point of view was intolerable the spirit of cricket had been breached his Hallowed gang this game that Victorian England had given to the world it stood for all that was great and good it was being dispersed I had very people who had given the game to the world and this was beyond the comprehension of a lot of Australians to start with and then anger and that phrase it isn't cricket I'm sure it was current been it's been current since the level at which the diplomacy was carried through the way something happening on a cricket field has rocketed into the inner most councils of Britain and Australia was astonishing you had Joe Lyons the prime minister putting in his word you had SM Bruce of former Prime Minister's suggesting subtly or not so subtly to the the British that Australian might indeed have trouble repaying loans if the climate were not eased a little you had the British representative in Canberra Crutchley he couldn't the High Commissioner running around like mad you and Sir Alexandra Ruth Minh the later Lord Garry and governor-general of Australia it was in the governor of South Australia who was away at the beginning of bodyline but then when he came back discovering that it was much more serious than he thought he was putting him his his slice of the action and the whole thing became something at an extraordinarily high level involving Canberra Whitehall exchanges that probably were not matched until you got unto apartheid in the sporting term the public furor created by bodyline was such it made the implacable Douglas Jardine reconsider his strategy if only momentarily after the third test in Adelaide he did call a meeting of the players and suggest that they abandoned bodyline not so much in response to the accusation that it was unsportsmanlike but because it was having such an effect on the crowd and they fear that there might be a riot and the obvious extent to which it was souring relations between the two countries and they talked about it but the general feeling even among those who strongly disapproved a body line was that it would have looked like an acknowledgment that their tactics were unsportsmanlike and that's what they couldn't they couldn't bear to admit bodyline the third England won the series four tests to one and regained the ashes the prime motivation in employing bodyline tactics namely to mute the prolific scoring of Don Bradman achieved the desired results he was not quite brought to his knees but he was transformed into something unrecognizable from the previous four years he came out of it with an average of 56 which is respectable but it was probably a quarter of what England feared even average against him against all four dogs tactics without the fatal setting the whole thing fell down a little bit and we'd had bounces far before quite a few but consistent bouncing of the ball through a lakeside field is completely negated all the attractiveness of the game of cricket all the attractive shots in the game like the cover drive and things like that would be non-existent and I mean who wants to go at the ground and watch fellows ducking and diving and getting caught off their gloves or getting hit and falling down and so on and that that's no attraction the success of bodyline was ultimately due to the consummate skill of harold lowered and his ability to bowl with such sustained accuracy at such fearsome pace for such long periods of time was extraordinaire wasn't it but the reception that he'll blow would got after you think the suffering that he'd calls upon the Australian team and the Australian public the Australian nation when you think the reception that he got when he made 98 in the last Test match he came out as a was in error and it's trazan he went in as Nightwatchman he didn't like that when Jardine said Pat up Harold time you see thought he'd done enough already he wasn't a bad bat Lola and he said he made 98 runs and that was Jolyon just being coming with absolutely tickled pink to hear them cheering as loudly as he went off the field as they had screamed him before when he was really meant a lot to him I think it took him a while to realize if they were cheering his score not the fact that he was out deep down Australians knew that they were watching a great cricketer they probably realized he was a tool in something in a system that was larger than himself yes trail Ian's but delighted to see him do it because they recognized bravery and guts and effectiveness for the team and Jardine back in the pavilion must have been scratching his head and burying his face in his hand saying I don't understand these people Douglas Jardine love/hate relationship with the Australian crowd did have its lighter moments there is a story that when darling when the body Lamas in full flight and this day Jardine's name went up on the board and of course the crowd immediately started and he's making his way to the door and he stops he took his England cap off and handed at the head leave Verity and he said where is he get me my Harlequin cap he said I'll give these sound says something to shout about my father enjoyed the sort of repartee and he certainly he told us of an occasion at a test match in Sydney where on a very hot day fielding in the outfield and and trying to flit away the the flies that were all round him because it was so hot and some wag in the crowd behind him send him you leave are bloody flies alone the final battle between Longwood and Redman had a rather poignant conclusion in Sydney don't build his heart hold on hard Australian wickets in something he really wasn't used to in any fast Bowman and will come down with a great crash on those Liz wickets predict you started burning at Lord's pace and he broke a bone in in the middle and over but Jardine said you finish Neela and here we had one of the dramatic cameos of the whole series when Bill wood full of all people was at the other end and he acknowledged that Larwood was a bruised and battered warrior and he treated him kindly all laberd could do apparently was to stand at the crease and Ronnie's arm over and he said I thought to myself well he is five fours and dad just patted the ball gently back to Laird who refused to take advantage he lowered said that that's the sort of sportsman that bill would for was lowered askew off why would you are not going off until Raburn is out and not I'm not going off but you're going to feel the colorpoint so then one can see you every time he looked up fortunately the hell alive with Don Bradman is dismissed so it should be afterwards and the pair of them then walked off Jardine said you can go now Harold and they walked off of course without speaking to each other or acknowledging each other and there you had the two key characters and the body line series leaving the arena shortly before the clothes at least Levin for only one century in this period and when will de Hammond hit the winning six that concluded everyone was happy England's first captain after the last war when we went to Australia in 46 47 was Molly Hammond who being of course to Australian 3233 making his fourth tour tour soon he was and he was asked on the eve of departure by pony line whether they'd be in any of that sort again and he said on no account will there be a night body line he said bond and I was bad for the game he said I didn't approve of it and he said really so when I look back I'm quite surprised nobody was killed MCC didn't hurry to amend the law concerning intimidation and even when Australia agreed to tour in 1934 they had nothing actually convincing in writing that there will be no it's only the word of English cricket that there will be no further body line Australia's 1934 tour of England was very much about the restoration of friendly relations between the two countries bill would fall succeeded in regaining the ashes for Australia and then announced his retirement from cricket at the conclusion of the tour Australia won the series two tests - one against an England team that did not include either Harold Laird Bill Bowes or Douglas Jardine Jardine knew that the tide had turned against him really and resigned before it became an issue centre a note to the MCC saying that he had neither the time nor the inclination to play against Australia in 1934 and he reported the series from the press box my father did feel abandoned by the MCC who had agreed that these will be the tactics for the bodyline tour and then left him to take the blame the MCC were determined not to lose face and to this day they've neither apologised nor really come clean on what happened in what happened was that they were compelled at their own pace to write in to the laws of the game but thou shalt not do that you cannot bowl bouncers at a man's sky with all those close fielders there the mcc lost face in a sense I suppose but of course the argument is quite simple here that they use poor old Jardine and even more poor old Lord as the scapegoats I mean he was out here bowling his heart out for his country and his captain and he received these wonderfully congratulatory telegram from the MCC saying well bowled not well bowled loud they tried to make Larwood apologize I was fascinated and Larwood was required by the nottingham show authorities the instance of the mcc to write a letter and they drafted a letter from darwood to sign one minute they're congratulating him in the next minute they're asking him to apologize for doing what he did I don't think he ever got over that hurt I think he hurt inside he showed the Lester's mother and his mother said Harold if you sign that letter you will never see me again in your life he didn't he never played for England again he was simply rejected which is why he ended up in Australia in 1950 Howard lowered his wife and five daughters migrated to Australia and settled in a suburb of Sydney where he lived very happily for the remainder of his life occasionally he would renew acquaintances with his old foe didn't I gone to town to do some shopping or feelingly kinda binded and I watched a high school and we were walking up loading place to get the bus home and look who's coming here was what if it's Don Bradman so I stopped and I shook hands and had a chat we walked around it as well but people around wouldn't guess who was talking there together Douglas Jardine visited Australia on business in 1954 he was pleasantly surprised at the warmth of his reception and was delighted to strike up a friendship with Australia's cricket loving prime minister - Robert Menzies and there's a story of them at a dinner and at the end sabab turning and saying that to my father t thought he was probably the most unpopular man in Australia and my father very quickly correcting him saying on the contrary that he reckoned that he was more unpopular still the father had imitation from the Melbourne Club and to attend their centenary in 77 and he was absolutely amazed and you know at the attention that he got well there you see the two famous cricketers of yesteryear are allowed handle those accompanied by the chair of the athletic board with about parents except according to former great pastors they got out on to the pen delivery Bilbo's just taking his coat off is about ability over writing when he went down to the ground economy his name within huge gilt letters and they asked him to just step on to the ground and said the deafening roar went up and if he couldn't believe it he didn't think anybody would remember him but he certainly did get a marvelous reception when he went out there in 77 it's beyond the prayers of any human being perhaps the last word should be left with Australia's captain during the body line theory of the gentlemanly really would fall to all our hosts of friends in England we Australian cricketer send good wishes he certainly enjoyed his cricket up till the body line the body line series spoilt his love for the game and after that he said I didn't really enjoy the game anymore so it took a lot out of him from that point of view but I'll field as a matter of fact said to Mum that he was quite convinced that the body line series had shortened that life you felt that build would feel that there was no one who would have been better suited to see Australia through the difficult few months of bodyline he was ruthless chap Douglas he was most uncompromising there was nothing nothing that was going to prepare from carrying out right to the end of it imagine your vows move the ball into the batsman and then and that made him quite awkward when he the bowl of answers the keynote for good bottle on going that is accuracy and there are very few bowlers who can bowl fast and accurate deliveries Lausanne the very few who could do that don't grab momentum or to Australia then and ever before or subsequent crowd suggest to see him brought down it was such a cruel thing

Channel: Sidath Sameera

Views: 110,727

Rating: 4.7662921 out of 5

Keywords: ABC, Bodyline, Its, Just, Not, Cricket, DVB, Xvid, AC3, www, mvgroup, org

Id: tE0fjST5S3U

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2013