“If there was a most popular man

competition promoted in Australia

at the moment and Douglas
BODYLINE AND Jardine constituted all three
starters in it, it would be safe to
wager he wouldn't fill a place."
Lead article in
HOW IT HAS Melbourne's Truth newspaper.

CHANGED THE
GAME FOREVER
Anthony McMahon - 18960657
 Bodyline
The reason I have chosen to investigate the
1933 series between Australia cricket team
and the MCC (England) which will be
forever known as the bodyline series. This
is of interest to me as I am an avid cricket
lover. Not only do I play the game but I
also, watch and teach the game we play
today. The modern-day cricket game of
our generation is not the one that many of
our past Australian cricketing heroes
played. In my opinion this change to the
game of cricket can be all linked back to
one of the most crucial cricketing series of
all time, the bodyline series.
Bringing Bodyline into the 21st
Century
The word “bodyline” still sends shivers
down Australian cricket lovers spines. It is
the series that many have never got over
and many Australians will never forget. It
was the series that killed the ‘gentleman
game’ of cricket. It was a tactic enforced
by the English which was of a direct attack
on the batsmen instead of his wicket. This
outraged players and supporters in
Australia. If we are to bring bodyline into
the 21st century it has been compared to
the 2013/14 ashes series on Australian soil
between Michael Clarke’s Australian side
spearheaded by left arm tearaway fast
bowler Mitchell Johnson against Allister
Cook’s touring England side. The series
will be remembered for an Australian
barrage of short bowling and in cricket
terms ‘bouncers’ directed at the English
batsmen. The series resulted in a 5-0
victory for Australia which is only the 3rd
time in the history of the Ashes which has
been played every 2 years since 1882.
Now although the 2013/14 series has been
compared to bodyline, I don’t think there
has or will be a series as controversial as
1
D Frith, Bodyline Autopsy: The Full Story of the
Most Sensational Test Cricket Series: England v
Australia 1932–33, in, 1st ed., GB, 2003, pp. 6-12.
the bodyline series. Just why was bodyline
so controversial? If we look back to 1933
when this series took place, it was a
different world than the one we live into
today. The etiquette that was involved in
the game of cricket was
immense and all players abided by this. It
was a game played by gentlemen. The use
of the short ball was limited as the danger
it caused to the batmen due to the lack of
protective equipment. This etiquette was
taken to another level when a lower order
batsman would come to the crease as
bowlers would look after one another.
There was a fast bowler’s pact which
meant that neither side would bowl short
to one other and that’s just the way it was,
and it had been that way for decades. This
was until one man named Douglas Jardine
brought his touring side over onto
Australian soil with one intention and one
intention only. This was to leave with the
ashes, and he would do anything he had to,
to make this become a reality. So was born
‘leg theory’. More commonly known as
Bodyline1.
Figure 1: Mitchell Johnson in the 2013/14 Ashes series
The Public Outcry
The public outcry at the time was huge.
From the players, board members all the
way down to the supporters. When the
bodyline tactics were put into place on
game day huge roars of booing would
2
 surround Australian stadiums showing
their disgust for what Douglas Jardine’s
team was doing. Bill Woodfull who was
the Australian cricket teams captain during
the bodyline series was quoted saying,
“There are two teams out there; one is
trying to play cricket and the other is not”2.
He said this after he was struck by the ball
in the chest during a barrage of short balls
by England fast bowler and spearhead of
the bodyline series Harold Larwood. To
bring the game into even more disrepute,
Douglas Jardine only soured relations even
more by yelling "Well bowled, Harold!"
after striking Woodfull3. Relations
between the two teams were already
fragile but this encounter was the moment
where Australia really identified what they
were up against. An England team which
was hell bent on regaining the ashes with
no concerns for the consequences of their
actions. The bodyline tactic split the
English side with fast bowler George
'Gubby' Allen refusing to bowl to the
bodyline tactics despite the urgings from
captain, Douglas Jardine. Allen described
Jardine as 'a perfect swine' in a letter to his
parents, Sir Walter and Lady Allen4.
Public outcry is one thing but to have your
own teammates questioning your team’s
tactics as un sporting shows how
controversial these tactics were at the time.
Douglas Jardine was almost using these
tactics to show his supposed superiority to
the Australians. His view was that
Australians were nothing less than
convicts and the English were the upper-
class men. He wanted to knock Australia
back a peg. Some shared his view back on
2 4
Williamson, M. (2019). Bodyline
quotes.Retrieved 13 October 2019, from
http://www.espncricinfo.com/bodyline/content/stor
y/316186.html
3
Williamson, M. (2019). Bodyline quotes.
Retrieved 13 October 2019, from
http://www.espncricinfo.com/bodyline/content/stor
y/316186.html
his home soil but for the most part people
were against his view and as I mentioned
before that went for some of his team
mates as well5.
Figure 2: Bill Woodfull After being hit in the chest
by a short-pitched delivery
Bodyline in the press?
Bodyline was not depicted overly well in
the press in either nation. Even the British
press weren’t jumping to defend their
countries tactics. An article taken from the
examiner in 1933 stated that Hobbs who
was a British journalist was critical of the
bodyline tactics however he did think it
would limit the impact Don Bradman
would have on the ashes series, which
turned out to be correct6. Don Bradman
finished his career with an average of
99.94 but in the bodyline series he finished
with an average of 56.57 which is still an
exceptional average and was the second
highest for the series. However, from a
player who averaged almost 100 his
average was cut in half during the series
which was a massive advantage for the
English cricket team. Masculinity was a
MCC Cricket Laws. (2019). Retrieved 13
October 2019, from
https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws/no-ball
5
P McDevitt, Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in
Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935, in, 1st
ed., Palgrave Macmillan US, 2004, pp. 6-9.
6
Examiner. (1933). British Press Reaction, p. pg.
8. Retrieved from
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=Bodyli
ne+reaction
3
product the English media attempted to and the number has steadily increased as
sell. A piece written by Patrick McDevitt the English cricket season progressed”12.
explains this further. He writes that The MCC is the most prestigious club to
Jardine thought the Australians were not England which resides at the home of
‘man’ or ‘tough’ enough to face the short cricket (Lords). Members of this club were
pitched, aggressive style of bowling and even against the tactics used which only
that it wasn’t the tactic but the weakness made the bodyline series seem more
from the Australian cricketers that tainted controversial than it already was.
the series7.
New Laws and Rules changes
The Australian press on the other hand
weren’t so nice. Bodyline was depicted as Since the bodyline series there has been
a cruel and un-sportsman like tactic that several laws created so the bodyline tactics
had tarnished the game of cricket an article used by Douglas Jardine can never be
taken from the Townsville Daily Bulletin implemented on a cricket field again. The
which was sourced from trove stated that most important being Law 28.4 –
“It Is a catastrophe that the offensive Limitation of on side fielders. This law
subject of 'bodyline' bowling has been means that a captain can only have two
instigated by some, players and fieldsmen behind the square leg umpire at
administrations”8. An article was released all times. This stops a captain from setting
in 1934 in the weekly times which stated a ‘bodyline field setting’.
the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)
should insist all captains take all the
necessary steps to ensure that this type of
bowling (Bodyline) is eliminated from our
game. This meaning laws had not been
passed however the MCC had requested
all captain play within the spirt of the
game from this time forward910. It was not
until later that laws were passed to prevent
the bodyline tactics from being enforced
Figure 3: Example of a Bodyline field
during a game11. The Glenelg guardian had
an article in 1933 which stated
Several other laws have been implemented
that “number of prominent members of the
such as Law 41.6 – Bowling of dangerous
Marylebone Club (MCC) have expressed
and unfair short pitched deliveries and
strong opposition to "bodyline" bowling,
Law 41.7 – Bowling of dangerous and

7 Ended", in, 1934, p. 69,

P McDevitt, "Bodyline, Jardine and masculinity",
in Cambridge, , 2012, pp. 12-20,
<https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/mod
ules/hi2b6/programme/week3/bodyline_jardine_and
_masculinity.pdf> [accessed 29 October 2019].
8 October 2019, from
C Macartney, "CRICKET. Bodyline Bowling.",
in Townsville Daily Bulletin, , 1933.
9
Advocate, "Bodyline Controversy", in, , 1933, p. 7,
<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/6806231
9?searchTerm=bodyline%20controversy%20cricket
&searchLimits=> [accessed 29 October 2019].
10
Weekly Times, "Marylebone Endorses Australian
Stand on Unfair Cricket Bodyline Controversy
<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2243911
97?searchTerm=bodyline%20controversy%20crick
et&searchLimits=> [accessed 29 October 2019].
11
MCC Cricket Laws. (2019). Retrieved 13
https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws/no-ball
12
Glenelg Guardian, "Bodyline Bowling", in , ,
1933, p. 3,
<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2152126
48?searchTerm=laws%20of%20cricket%20bodyline
&searchLimits=> [accessed 29 October 2019].

4
 unfair non-pitching deliveries13. If these
laws are broken it now constitutes as a No
Ball which means you cannot be dismissed
and the team is awarded one run to their
score. In some cases of dangerous bowling
a bowler may be banned from bowling
during that game. This was not the case
back in the 1930s and dangerous bowling
did not constitute the removal of a bowler.
If these laws were in place back in the
bodyline series, the English bowlers would
not have been able to bowl more than two
short deliveries per over. They were
bowling five to six short balls per over.
They would only have been allowed to
place two fieldsmen behind the square leg
umpire. They were placing up to five
behind square at times and ‘bodyline’
would have never happened.
What I am trying to argue is that the
bodyline series was the direct factor
behind these rule changes. Without the
bodyline series and the ‘leg theory’ tactic
created and implemented by Douglas
Jardine we still might be playing the game
with the same laws as back in the 1930s.
To delve further into this argument, you
could also argue that the importance put
into improvements to protective equipment
players use such as padding and helmets
stem back to the bodyline series. If you
refer to Figure 1 and 3 you can see that
players wore very limited protective
equipment. No helmet, arm guard or chest
guard was worn by any batsmen during the
bodyline series. In today’s game, it is
uncommon to see any player bat without
an arm guard or chest guard. And it is a
law that every batsman who takes to the
crease must be wearing helmet, this also
refers to wicket keepers who keep up to
the stumps and are in danger of a ball
hitting them in the head.
13
MCC Cricket Laws. (2019). Retrieved 13 October
2019, from https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws/no-ball
The tragic story of Phillip
Hughes
As humans, we generally react to popular
events and tragic incidents as it is a very
natural response. In more recent times, we
look to Phillip Hughes who was wearing a
helmet and was struck on the back of his
neck14. He collapsed and lost
consciousness seconds after the impact and
never woke up. He died days later, and the
cricket world went into mourning. This is
an example of an event that has changed
certain aspects of the game. In a similar
way to the Bodyline series, Hughes death
lead to safety advancements in cricket.
Rules have since been in forced that
players must wear a helmet with a non-
adjustable grill and padding has been
added to many helmets to cover the back
of the player’s neck. If we look at this
tragic accident, we can see how easy it is
for reactional behaviours to occur and I
believe this is what has occurred when we
look at the change to the game of cricket
over the better half of a century. Viewing
Bodyline as a major event allows us to
acknowledge the way it enacted change to
the game of cricket following the series in
1932-33.
Figure 4: Phillip Hughes after being struck with a
cricket ball in 2014
Phillip Hughes will never be forgotten, and
he will be remembered as a wonderful
14
J Pearlman, "Phillip Hughes' death ruled an
accident, with bowler and sledging not to
blame", in The Telegraph, 2016.
5
 young man and cricketer who was taken one final statement and this is what I have
far too young. tried to rely through this piece. The
changes that I have outlined in this
illustrated essay have come about as a
Bodyline has changed the game direct response to the bodyline series and
would never have been implemented
forever… unless this series did in fact occur and the
bodyline tactic was used in our great
To conclude, the bodyline series was one game.
of the most famous and controversial
series for all the wrong reasons. However,
the bodyline series may have changed the
game for the better. Bodyline is the reason
the game is played the way it is today.
Rules changes, law implementation,
tactical thinking and wearing of protective
equipment are all present in our modern-
day game of cricket thanks to the bodyline
series. So, in some way was have Douglas
Jardine to thank for his tactic and use of
the ‘leg theory’, as well as his vision that
ended in the bodyline series. It has
changed the game for the better and made
Figure 5: Bert Oldfield after being struck in the
it a more practical and safer spectacle for head by a short ball
all people involved. I will leave you with

Anthony McMahon
18960657

6
Bibliography

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<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68062319?searchTerm=bodyline
%20controversy%20cricket&searchLimits=> [accessed 29 October 2019].

- “Bodyline cricket series, 1932-33". in, 2019,

<https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/bodyline-cricket-series-1932-33>
[accessed 28 October 2019].

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https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=Bodyline+reaction [accessed 28
October 2019].

- Frith, D, Bodyline Autopsy: The Full Story of the Most Sensational Test Cricket
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- G.K.M, "Marylebone Endorses Australian Stand on Unfair Cricket Bodyline

Controversy Ended.". in Weekly times, 1934, p. 69,
<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224391197?searchTerm=bodylin
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<https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/215212648?searchTerm=laws%2
0of%20cricket%20bodyline&searchLimits=> [accessed 29 October 2019].

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[accessed 28 October 2019].

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https://www.lords.org/mcc/laws/no-ball [accessed 28 October 2019].

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<https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi2b6/programme/week
3/bodyline_jardine_and_masculinity.pdf> [accessed 29 October 2019].

7
- McDevitt, P, Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire,
1880-1935. In, 1st ed., Palgrave Macmillan US, 2004, pp. 6-9.

- Melbourne's Truth newspaper, "Bodyline.", 1932, p. 2. From

http://www.espncricinfo.com/bodyline/content/story/316186.html [accessed
28 October 2019].

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sledging not to blame.". in The Telegraph, , 2016. [accessed 28 October 2019].

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8
Copyright

Figures 2,3,5 are all taken and published before 1950 so therefore and free for public use.

Figures 1,4 copyright owners were contacted but did not respond. If my research paper was to
ever be published I would remove these figures from my essay.
Request for Extension

10