From
the archives: the Bodyline series
There is no denying that Douglas Jardine’s bodyline strategy worked (Patrick
Kidd writes). The MCC captain for the 1932-33 tour to Australia called his
tactic of bowling bouncers with a packed leg-side field “fast leg theory”
and there was nothing in the laws of cricket that forbade it. Those laws
were soon changed.
With a battery of fast bowlers at his disposal, Harold Larwood to the fore,
Jardine’s plan restricted Don Bradman’s average to below 60, neutralised
other leading batsmen and ensured that England regained the Ashes 4-1.
But while it may have been legal and effective, was it against the spirit of
the game and would other captains use bodyline if they could? The Times
spoke to 21 former and present county captains, including seven captains of
England, and Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, whose bowlers in
the 1970s and 1980s were arguably as dangerous as Larwood. Two thirds of
them broadly supported Jardine, although some are not convinced they would
have had the courage to do the same, while seven of the 21 felt he
overstepped the line. Seventy-five years on, bodyline continues to provoke
debate.
Michael Atherton (former captain of Lancashire and England)
“I would like to think I would have been as ruthless, but I suspect I might
not have been. As for the ethics, I was fundamentally opposed, for example,
to Nasser Hussain’s tactics against Sachin Tendulkar in India in 2002, where
Ashley Giles did not just bowl into the rough, but so far outside of leg
stump that batsmanship became impossible. It took negativity to an extreme,
to the point at which nobody could have been blamed for leaving the ground.
“Bodyline does not resonate so strongly now given the West Indies of the
1980s, but it was probably similar. As a captain you want to challenge the
opposition fully, but there is a limit beyond which cricket suffers.
Ultimately bodyline provided more excitement than any other series, so
Jardine must have been within his rights.”
David Gower (Leicestershire and England)
“I probably wouldn’t have thought of it had I been captain. The reason it was
so shocking was that it was different to any concept of the game before. But
the game survived, whatever you thought of it. The game reacted as it didn’t
like what had happened and changed the rules. England and Australia still
have one of the most eagerly anticipated sporting contests. Am I for or
against bodyline? I’m for it, but I wouldn’t have come up with it.”
Allan Lamb (Northamptonshire and England)
“Bodyline was no different to facing a four-man West Indies pace attack in the
1980s when they could go round the wicket and bowl at our bodies. It wasn’t
sportsmanlike but you had to take whatever they threw at you. Everyone was
moaning and saying how are we going to combat it? So the ICC brought in the
two-bouncers-an-over limit, but they still knocked over sides. I reckon it
was worse batting against the West Indies than it would have been against
bodyline. Jardine had the ammo and was one step ahead of the Aussies. If
you’ve got the artillery, then use it. I’m 100 per cent in favour of
bodyline.”
Mike Brearley (Middlesex and England)
“I have no doubt that Jardine was right to say that if England had used it to
less effect, there would have been very little opposition. If Australia had
won, the offence would have been minimal. If it had been used as an
occasional variation, no one would have made a fuss.
“Does this exonerate him? Not entirely. For there is something about the sheer
relentlessness of Jardine that sets him apart. If he found the Australian
crowds provocative in their barracking, they had reason to find him
provocative, both in his timing and in his attitude. In fact this was
exactly Bob Wyatt’s view [the vice-captain]. He felt that the use of
persistent, short-pitched leg theory was against the spirit of the game and
not good for cricket. I agree.”
Alec Stewart (Surrey and England)
“The ploy was forward-thinking because as a captain you have to look at
employing tactics to give you an advantage to help you to win. At the time,
it was within the rules and it’s no different to a spinner bowling around
the wicket into the rough today. The tactic resulted in an England series
win so credit must go to the captain for that.”
Mike Denness (Kent and England)
“I often tried to talk to Bradman about bodyline but all I discovered was how
brilliant he was at changing the subject. I deduced that he didn’t really
accept the tactic that Jardine put in place and that was confirmed when he
told me: ‘You’re a far more acceptable Scotsman than the last one who
captained England here.’
“There was nothing in the laws to say that Jardine couldn’t do what he did,
but from the film that I’ve seen it didn’t look very nice and I can
understand why it caused so much fury. Captains will always make the most of
the ammunition they’ve got, as we found out in 1974-75 when Australia had
Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. It was a tough experience but I think
bodyline was a lot worse.”
Mike Gatting (Middlesex and England)
“Bodyline was probably the first instance of a captain identifying a weakness
in the opposition and coming up with a new tactic to exploit it. Bradman was
a great player who scored freely when the ball was pitched up at medium pace
and Jardine said: ‘Let’s see how we can negate this greatness.’
“He knew what he had in Larwood, he knew what he could do, and you have to
admire Jardine for using his initiative. When the West Indies had four
genuinely fast bowlers in the 1970s and 1980s, there was some disquiet
because the overrate was so poor and they didn’t play a spinner, but they
were a great side and people looked at them in admiration more than anything
else. Whether they liked it or not was neither here nor there.”
Clive Lloyd (Lancashire and West Indies)
“Jardine obviously found a tactic that was successful and if it was within the
laws of the game then it was fair enough. Every game has to be played within
the laws and if anyone transgresses it is up to the umpires to step in and
stop it. People have drawn comparisons between bodyline and what we did when
we had guys who were really quick. The fact is that we had four fast bowlers
of outstanding ability who all did something different with the ball and it
was a test of character facing them. We had a problem with a bad wicket at
Old Trafford in 1976 [when Brian Close and John Edrich took a fearful
battering from Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Wayne Daniel] but we always
played by the rules.”
Heath Streak (Warwickshire and Zimbabwe)
“I would have gone with it. At that stage, it was hard for people to say it
was unsporting as it hadn’t happened before. As a captain, you’re always
looking for an advantage.”
Ed Smith (Middlesex and Kent)
“There is always a tension in sport between convention and what the rule book
says. If you want to win at all costs, there is usually scope to gain an
advantage that the opposition hasn’t thought of or wouldn’t countenance.
That is what Jardine did. He had the imagination and ruthlessness to
conceive of bodyline and the arrogance to follow it through. Bodyline
clearly overstepped a line. But Jardine didn’t always lead the game in the
wrong direction. Jardine was more popular in India on the MCC tour there and
I think the great West Indies batsman George Headley said that Jardine was
the captain he would most liked to have played under.”
Mark Ramprakash (Surrey and Middlesex)
“I don’t think I would have employed that as a captain, not the sustained
assault that happened. Sure, use some short balls to unsettle a batsman, but
the primary purpose must be to get him out, not to knock him out. The
introduction of helmets has changed the way batsmen play the game, with 90
per cent preferring to play off the front foot. If you had to face bodyline
from Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee without a helmet, you would see an end to
front-foot play.”
Nick Knight (Warwickshire)
“My gut feeling is that we took it a bit too far. I’m all for captains taking
the game forward and finding new ways of playing the game, but it must have
been monotonous from the entertainment point of view.”
Jason Gallian (Nottinghamshire)
“It was devised to stop the best player in the world. But if he found it
difficult, then it followed that lesser players would, too. It was worth
trying — I’m certainly pro it.”
Steve James (Glamorgan)
“I’m a bit torn. I can see why Jardine did it, but when I captained I tried to
do so in the spirit of the game. That to me is the big thing — bodyline
wasn’t within the spirit. You have to be a certain type of character to
implement it. Deep down, I probably would have liked to, but the bottom line
is that I couldn’t have done it.”
Ronnie Irani (Essex)
“I would have done absolutely the same as Jardine. As captain, you’re always
trying to think out of your box. It was a bit different in those days as
they didn’t have helmets. I wouldn’t have wanted to see anyone killed, but
they were real men then.”
Matthew Fleming (Kent)
“Where’s the difference between bodyline and what the West Indies did or when
Shane Warne came round the wicket and bowled outside batsmen’s legs?
Bodyline was a fair tactic as it was within the laws, if not within the
spirit. My instinct is that I wouldn’t have done it, but you can’t criticise
Jardine for doing it as it came within the laws. I wouldn’t have had the
imagination.”
David Sales (Northamptonshire)
“I probably would have done it. I’d have loved to have had an attack like
England did. To keep a bloke like Bradman quiet means that Jardine must have
done something right.”
Trevor Bailey (Essex)
“Cricket has never been an entirely peaceful game and Jardine showed a lot of
intelligence. He was ruthless, obviously, and not very fond of Australians
and he came up with something new. If you can do that, you’re going to have
an advantage. The most important thing was that in Larwood and Bill Voce he
had the bowlers who could do what he wanted. It didn’t go down well with one
or two of the England players, notably Gubby Allen, but I would have been
more cynical. I would have loved to have gone on that tour. And I’m sure
that if Australia had had the bowlers they would have done exactly the same
thing.”
Sir Alec Bedser (Surrey)
“It was against the spirit of the game and would have ruined cricket if it had
been allowed to carry on. Everyone said that the Australians were whingers,
but we would have made a bigger fuss if it had been the other way round.”
Doug Insole (Essex)
“It was only possible because of the combination of fast bowlers we had in
Australia and tactically it was highly successful. That it was thought to be
bad for the game was indicated by the fact it was then banned. I cannot say
that I would have been against it at the time, but the general feeling was
that it wasn’t a great way to play the game and I agree with that. Jardine
was single-minded and possibly hostile to Australia. For all that, he was an
astute captain to whom his players — even those who didn’t favour bodyline —
were completely loyal. Without that, the process could not have continued.”
Warren Hegg (Lancashire)
“You can still see the influence of bodyline in almost every county match.
When I was captain of Lancashire, we would often try to break a partnership
with a sustained spell of short-pitched bowling, with a short leg, a man
catching round the corner and a deep square leg on the hook. It’s always
worth a go — even the world’s best players of fast bowling don’t enjoy a
prolonged spell of well-directed short stuff.
“The pitches at Old Trafford are quite conducive to bowling short and the best
exponent was Peter Martin. He’d get close to the wicket, had a good, high
action, but most of all he was accurate. It’s no good bowling short if
you’re throwing it down the off or leg side. As with any form of attack in
cricket, sustained accuracy is going to bring you results.”
