Bodyline - Antipathy Between Australians and Jardine

Antipathy Between Australians and Jardine

Jardine's first experience against Australia came when his Oxford University team played against the 1921 Australian touring side. In the second innings, Jardine was 96 not out when the game ended, having batted his team to safety. The tourists were criticised in the press for not allowing Jardine to reach his hundred, but they had tried to help him with some easy bowling. There has been speculation that this incident helped develop Jardine's antipathy towards Australians, although Christopher Douglas denies this. Cricket historian David Frith believed it is possible that the abrasive Australian captain Warwick Armstrong could have addressed sarcastic comments to Jardine but Wisden believed his slow approach cost him his century.

Regardless of what happened in 1921, Jardine's conflicts with Australia solidified after he was selected to tour the country in 1928–29. He began the tour with three consecutive hundreds. During the first century, the crowd engaged in some good-natured joking at Jardine's expense, but he was jeered by the crowd during his second hundred for batting too slowly. Jardine accelerated after another slow start, during which he was again barracked to score his third century. The crowds took an increasing dislike to him, mainly for his superior attitude and bearing, his awkward fielding, and particularly his choice of headwear. His first public action in South Australia was to take out the members of the South Australian team who had been to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Then, he wore a Harlequin cap, given to successful cricketers at Oxford. It was not unusual for Oxford and Cambridge cricketers to wear similar caps while batting, as both Jardine and MCC captain Percy Chapman did so on this tour, although it was slightly unorthodox to wear them while fielding. However, this was neither understood nor acceptable to the Australian crowds. They quickly took exception to the importance he seemed to place on class distinction. Although Jardine may simply have worn the cap out of superstition, it conveyed a negative impression to the spectators; his general demeanour drew one comment of "Where's the butler to carry the bat for you?" Jardine's cap became a focus for criticism and mockery from the crowds throughout the tour. Nevertheless, Jack Fingleton later claimed that Jardine could have won over the crowd by exchanging jokes or pleasantries with them. It is certain that Jardine by this stage had developed an intense dislike for Australian crowds. During his third century at the start of the tour, during a period of abuse from the spectators, he observed to a sympathetic Hunter Hendry that "All Australians are uneducated, and an unruly mob". After the innings, when teammate Patsy Hendren remarked that the Australian crowds did not like Jardine, he replied "It's fucking mutual". During the tour, Jardine fielded next to the crowd on the boundary. There, he was roundly abused and mocked for his awkward fielding, particularly when chasing the ball. On one occasion, he spat towards the crowd while fielding on the boundary as he changed position for the final time.

During the journey to Australia, some players reported that Jardine told them to hate the Australians in order to defeat them, while instructing them to refer to Bradman as "the little bastard." At this stage, he seemed to have settled on leg theory, if not full bodyline, as his main tactic.

Once the team arrived in Australia, Jardine quickly alienated the press by refusing to give team details before a match and being uncooperative during interviews. The press printed some negative stories as a result and the crowds barracked as they had done on his previous tour, which made him angry.