Bodyline: It's not cricket

The sporting press plays the role of the Greek chorus throughout this series. They fill us in on the background and keep the story moving forward. Max Cullen is absolutely terrific as the journalist while Paul Chubb is a magnificent barracker. In this case, the journalist (Max Cullen) has sensed a division in the English team and moves in to seriously embarrass the English manager, Pelham Warner (Rhys McConnochie) in front of his captain, Jardine (Hugo Weaving). Later, when the Nawab (Ahok Banthia) voices his disquiet, Jardine insensitively puts him down. It’s not lost on the audience that Jardine is a product of the British Raj. The irony here is that within two decades the English will lose the Indian subcontinent, their jewel in the Crown and in the Indian man’s reaction to the Jardine’s harsh words, we see some of the reasons why.

Bodyline synopsis

In the summer of 1932-33, three men of Empire – the brilliant young Australian batsman Donald Bradman (Gary Sweet), the gentleman English captain Douglas Jardine (Hugo Weaving) and the Yorkshire coal miner and fast bowler Harold Larwood (Jim Holt) – would play to enormous crowds across Australia, in the 'Bodyline’ test series – so called because of the bowling tactics of the English team. This controversial test series threatened the traditional ties between Australia and the 'mother’ country and changed the game of cricket forever.

Bodyline curator's notes

Bodyline tells the story of a test series in which the English Captain, Douglas Jardine, instructed his speed bowlers, including the fast bowler Harold Larwood, to bowl at the upper body of the Australian batsmen. This increased the chances of a defensive reaction, which would either expose the wicket or give an easy catch to the fieldsmen. The English team had lost the Ashes to Australia the previous year and Jardine was determined to break the winning streak of Australia’s star batsman, Donald Bradman.

It was the height of the worldwide economic depression and as the dole queues swelled and the despairing men took to the road to find work to keep their families housed and fed, sport – especially the British Empire game of cricket – became one of their few distractions. Kennedy Miller tells the bodyline story as the Greeks and Romans told the myths and legends of their great warrior heroes. The heroes in this case being three larger than life cricketing greats and their epic struggle to win the Ashes for their country. Through the telling of this extraordinary story, we learn a great deal about the changing nature of cricket, the stultifying hand of the cricketing bureaucracy and the character of the players who were determined to give their all for their team mates, their captain and their country.

Notes by Janet Bell

Education notes

This clip shows Douglas Jardine (Hugo Weaving), captain of the English cricket team, and Pelham Warner (Rhys McConnochie), team manager, at a press conference during the 1932–33 Ashes test series in Australia. A journalist (Max Cullen) quizzes Warner about his earlier opposition to bodyline bowling, and when the manager splutters uncomfortably, an imperious Jardine brings the press conference to an abrupt end. The clip then cuts to a reception for the English team on the eve of the Adelaide test match, where fellow team member, His Royal Highness, the Nawab of Pataudi (Ashok Banthia), tells Jardine that he cannot play by his rules, and the captain immediately drops him from the team.

Educational value points

• The 1932–33 Ashes test series in Australia, now known as the 'Bodyline’ series, was the most controversial and divisive episode in cricket history. After losing to the Australians in England in 1930, English cricket captain Douglas Jardine instructed his fast bowlers to bowl short-pitched but rising deliveries that targeted the batsman’s body rather than the wicket. The batsman would be struck on the body or forced to play a defensive shot, which often resulted in easy catches to a packed, close, leg-side field. The English called it 'fast-leg theory’, but Australian journalists dubbed it 'bodyline’ bowling.

• Bodyline bowling was used to curb the prolific run scoring of Australian batsman Don Bradman, who Jardine had observed was troubled by fast rising balls on the leg-stump. Bradman (1908–2001) is regarded as the world’s greatest batsman and in the 80 innings of his test cricket career, he scored 29 centuries, 12 double centuries and two triple centuries. He finished with a career total of 6,996 test runs at an average of 99.94. England won only 12 of the 37 tests that Bradman played against them. However, in the 'Bodyline’ series, Jardine’s tactic had its desired effect, with Bradman averaging only 56.6. England won the series by a 4 to 1 margin.

• Bodyline bowling created divisions within the English team. Prior to the tour, team manager Pelham Warner had been publicly critical of 'fast-leg theory’, while during the tour fast bowler George 'Gubby’ Allen refused to bowl bodyline and in a letter to his parents described Jardine as 'a perfect swine’ (www.atmitchell.com). The senior Nawab of Pataudi, Iftikhar Ali Khan, the only cricketer to play for both England and India, and who made a century on his test debut in the 1932–33 Ashes series, was dropped for the third test apparently after he voiced his opposition to the bodyline tactics.

• Australian crowds made clear their disapproval of bodyline bowling, booing the English team as they took to the field. Feelings escalated in the third test in Adelaide when Australian captain Bill Woodfull was struck on the heart, and Australian-wicket keeper Bert Oldfield was hit in the head and hospitalised with a fractured skull. Mounted police were brought in to control the angry crowd of 50,000 spectators, who threatened to invade the pitch. Woodfull, who refused to use bodyline bowling because he believed it would harm the game, told English team manager, Pelham Warner, 'There are two teams out there but only one of them is playing cricket’ (www.adb.online.anu.edu).

• After both Woodfull and Oldfield were injured during the third test in Adelaide the Australian Cricket Board of Control cabled its English counterpart, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to protest against the use of bodyline bowling, which they said was 'unsportsmanlike’ and, in addition to causing injury, was souring relations between the two sides. However, the MCC refuted the allegations and it was not until the West Indians used the tactic against the English later in 1933 that bodyline bowling was banned. Such was the extent of the controversy that the Australian and British cabinets even exchanged cables about the issue.

• Douglas Jardine (1900–58) was a batsman who made his test match debut for England in 1928, and in 22 test matches made 1,296 runs, with an average of 48. His captaincy of England from 1932 to 1934 was overshadowed by the bodyline controversy. The 'Bodyline’ series increased the antipathy between Jardine and the Australian crowds, who already felt he was pretentious for wearing his Oxford University 'Harlequin’ cap on the field rather than the English cap. For his part, Jardine dismissed Australians as 'an uneducated and unruly mob’.

• In Australia media coverage of the bodyline controversy, which was front-page news, vilified Jardine and fanned the outrage of Australian spectators. While some British media censored their coverage, respected British cricket journalist Neville Cardus writing in the Manchester Guardian advised Jardine that it would be better to lose the Ashes than win with the bodyline tactic. However, Christopher Douglas, author of Douglas Jardine: Spartan Cricketer, points out that bodyline bowling was not illegal and that, in a game that then favoured batsmen, Jardine’s tactic was a logical step.

• Australia and England are fierce cricketing rivals who have played test cricket since 1876. These test series were called the Ashes after 1882 when Australia won a series on English soil for the first time. The day following the win a humorous report appeared in the Sporting Times stating that English cricket had died, the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. On their next tour to Australia, the English team were presented with a small urn that, legend has it, was filled with the ashes of a pair of bails. The original urn is housed in the MCC’s museum at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, where it stays no matter which country wins, although it recently made a visit to Australia during the 2006–07 Ashes series.

Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia