The Bodyline Series – Ashes 1932

No tour has ever been more controversial than the so called 'Bodyline' tour when England travelled to Australia at the end of 1932.

'Bodyline' refers to a cricketing tactic adopted by the English largely to counteract the incredible batting of Australia's opening batsman, Dan Bradman. Bradman had already scored an astonishing 974 runs in the earlier tour of England in 1930. A batting average of 139.14 and an aggregate total record that still stands to this day.

Despite this incredible performance, English captain, Douglas Jardine has noticed that Bradman was uncomfortable facing deliveries which bounced higher than usual at a faster pace and rightly or wrongly Jardine had begun to question Bradman's nerve.

Jardine, together with his fast bowlers, Harold Larwood and Bill Voce formulated a plan to pitch the ball short and fast at the leg stump. The effect of which would be to drive the ball up into the Batsman body if he failed to play a shot.

Together with an inspired field placing Jardine reasoned that this would curtail the batsman's offensive strokes to standing and hooking, risking a catch on the boundaries or being hit on the head by the ball if they missed the hook.

Not surprisingly this highly aggressive tactic brought howls of protest in the Australian media and Jardine was widely pilloried. This was not helped by his own arrogant attitude and obvious dislike for all things down under.

England won the tour 4 – 1 to regain The Ashes but not before the tour had become a full blown diplomatic incident between the two countries. That intense rivalry remains to this day.