Bodyline - in Australia

In Australia

See also: English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33

Although English bowlers did aim at the batsmen's body in the opening tour matches, they did not follow through by packing the leg-side field until Bill Woodfull led an Australian XI against the tourists in Melbourne on 18–22 November, in what was effectively a Test rehearsal. Jardine was rested from that match and his deputy, Bob Wyatt, deployed the full bodyline tactics for the first time on the tour. The match was drawn and Woodfull struggled, making 18 and a duck. Utilising his hopping technique and attempting to play unorthodox shots resembling overhead tennis smashes, Bradman failed to make an impact, and England were buoyed ahead of the Tests. 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 considering it to be a variant of the established and unobjectionable leg theory tactic. The inflammatory term "bodyline" was coined and perpetuated by the Australian press (see below). English writers used the term fast leg theory. The terminology reflected differences in understanding, 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 what they perceived as a commonly used tactic. Some concluded that the Australian cricket authorities and public were sore losers. Of the four fast bowlers in the tour party, Gubby Allen was a voice of dissent in the English camp, refusing to bowl short on the leg side, and writing several letters home to England critical of Jardine, although he did not express this in public in Australia. A number of other players, while maintaining a united front in public, also deplored bodyline in private. The amateurs Bob Wyatt (the vice-captain), Freddie Brown and the Nawab of Pataudi opposed it, as did Walter Hammond and Les Ames among the professionals.

During the season, Woodfull's physical courage, stoic and dignified leadership won him many admirers. He flatly refused to employ retaliatory tactics and did not publicly complain even though he and his men were repeatedly hit.

Australia lost heavily by ten wickets in the first Test at Sydney, when the bowling spearhead of bodyline, Harold Larwood, took ten wickets. Bradman missed the first Test due to illness, although Jardine refused to believe this and thought the real reason was that the batsman had suffered a nervous breakdown due to his tactical scheme. The only Australian batsman to make an impact was Stan McCabe, who resolutely stood his ground and impulsively hooked and pulled everything aimed at his upper body, undeterred by the prospect of taking a potentially lethal blow to the head. He scored 187 not out in four hours, an innings described by leading historian David Frith as "among the most stirring innings Test cricket has ever produced".

Before the second Test in Melbourne, Woodfull had to wait until minutes before the game before he was confirmed as captain by the selectors. This caused the toss to be delayed and fomented speculation that the Australian Board of Control was considering the possibility of removing Woodfull because of his absolute refusal to allow his bowlers to use retaliatory tactics. His deputy Victor Richardson had advocated retaliation along with several other players. Richardson recalled Woodfull's private response:

There is no way I will be influenced to adopt such tactics which bring such discredit to the game. I know Tim could do it but I am not going to participate in actions that can only hurt the game.

The media advocated the selection of Eddie Gilbert, an indigenous bowler of extreme pace, in order to return the bodyline barrage. In one tour match, Gilbert had bloodied Jardine and left a bruise the size of a saucer. Another suggested means of retaliation was Laurie Nash, whose notoriously abrasive personality and aggression saw him regarded as a thug. However, Woodfull was totally unmoved by such suggestions.

On the opening day, Bradman wildly hooked at Bill Bowes' first ball (a non-bodyline ball) and was dismissed for a golden duck, leaving the entire stadium in shock. Jardine, who was known for being extremely dour even by the standards of the day, openly exulted and danced wildly upon Bradman's demise. Australia's eventual victory was met by widespread public jubilation, as many believed that Australia had found a means of overcoming the tactics. Bradman scored a match-winning century in the second innings, but it turned out to be his only triple figure score for the series, while Larwood was hampered by a bloodied foot and a slow pitch.

While bodyline was successful as a tactic (England regained the Ashes with a 4–1 margin), Australian crowds regarded it as vicious and unsporting.

The controversy reached its peak during the second day of the Third Test. On 14 January, an all-time record Adelaide Oval crowd of 50,962 watched Australia finish off England's first innings. Shortly after the start of Australia's innings, Larwood, bowling to a conventional field setting, struck Woodfull an agonising blow under his heart with a short, lifting delivery. Woodfull was struck when he was bent over his bat and wicket, and not when upright as often imagined. As Woodfull bent down over his bat in pain for several minutes, an image that became one of the defining symbols of the series, the huge crowd began jeering, hooting and verbally abusing the English team. Jardine reacted by saying "Well bowled, Harold." Tension and feelings ran so high that a riot was narrowly averted as police stationed themselves between the players and enraged spectators.

Jardine then ordered his team to move to bodyline positions immediately after Woodfull's injury. Jardine wrote that Larwood had asked for the field, while Larwood said that it was Jardine's decision. The capacity Saturday afternoon crowd viewed this as hitting a man when he was down. Journalist–cricketer Dick Whitington wrote that Jardine's actions were seen as "an unforgivable crime in Australian eyes and certainly no part of cricket". Mass hooting and jeering occurred after almost every ball. Whitington noted that " Hele believes that had what followed occurred in Melbourne the crowd would have leapt the fence and belaboured the English captain, Larwood, and possibly the entire side". Some English players later expressed fears that a large-scale riot could break out and that the police would not be able to stop the irate home crowd, who were worried that Woodfull or Bradman could be killed, from attacking them.

During the over, another rising Larwood delivery knocked the bat out of Woodfull's hands. He battled it out for 89 minutes, collecting more bruises before Allen bowled him for 22. Later in the day, the English team manager Pelham Warner visited the Australian dressing room to express his sympathies to Woodfull. Woodfull had remained calm in public, refusing to complain about Jardine's tactics. Woodfull's abrupt response was meant to be private, but it was leaked to the press and became the most famous quotation of this tumultuous period in cricket history:

I don't want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there, one is playing cricket. The other is making no attempt to do so.

Woodfull reportedly added "This game is too good to be spoilt. It's time some people got out of it", hinting that he might withdraw his team from competition in protest. Australia's Leo O'Brien later reported that Warner was close to tears following Woodfull's rebuke.

The leaking to the press of Woodfull's comments to Warner angered the Australian captain. He had intended the comments to be private, and ill feeling grew in the Australian camp as speculation about who leaked the incident to the press grew and many of the team privately pointed the finger at Bradman. (Bradman strenuously denied that he had been responsible to his dying day; others, including Plum Warner, pointed the finger at Bradman's team-mate and journalist, Jack Fingleton. However, in his autobiography, Fingleton claimed that Sydney Sun reporter Claude Corbett had received the information from Bradman.)

The next day, Larwood fractured wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield's skull. This occurred when Oldfield mis-hit a hook, which flew from the top edge off a traditional non-bodyline ball; Oldfield later admitted it was his fault. As a result of the injuries, the costs of insurance cover for players doubled.

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

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. He also secretly sent a telegram of sympathy to 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 of the opinion that their fast leg theory tactic was harmless—took serious offence at being branded "unsportsmanlike" and demanded a retraction. 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. England won the last three Tests to take the series 4–1.

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 56.57 in the series (an excellent average for most, but well short of his career average of 99.94), while being struck above the waist by the ball only once. His team-mates fared worse, with only Stan McCabe scoring a century.