Bodyline Series: Australia vs. England - the most controversial cricket series ever
In the 1930’s, the cricketing world was rocked by one of the most controversial series ever played in the history of international cricket. The Bodyline Series was played between England and Australia as part of the Ashes series in England. The controversial part of this cricket series was that the English team developed a new tactic in dealing with the batting strength of the Australian team. That tactic was to target the bodies of the Australian batsmen in order to hit or injure them for good. This tactic was widely successful for the English team. However, the tactic received widespread criticism as it was one of the most unsportsmanlike strategies ever seen in international cricket.
The Ashes series is one of the best and oldest rivalries in the game of cricket. The rivalry started when the dominant cricketing powerhouse of the time, England took on Australia who were the new guys on the cricketing map. On the 29th of August 1882, Australia beat England in a test match and a journalist wrote a fictitious obituary for English cricket. He stated that English cricket had died, the body had been cremated and the ashes had been taken to Australia. In essence, the Ashes Series was born when England had to go and defeat Australia and bring the ashes back to England. A ceremonial urn was bought and a ball was burned and its ashes were put in the urn. Till date, the Ashes Series has been played ever since that day with a lot of rivalry between the two countries. The Bodyline Series was the only series when sportsmanship was thrown out of the window.
In the England versus Australia test series of 1932-33, the best batsman at the time, Donald Bradman was tearing the world's best bowlers apart and no bowler could stand a chance against his prowess. The England captain at the time, Douglas Jardine decided to use a tactic that was known as the bodyline strategy because he instructed his bowlers, especially Harry Larwood, to bowl short pitched deliveries and aim for the batsmen's bodies. The controversy actually started in the third test of the series when the pitch was ideal for the bodyline strategy and Don Bradman was playing in that test.
The test started and the bodyline strategy started to pay off for the English. Many Australian batsmen were injured or were sent back packing on very low scores. Some of the batsmen were struck so hard that they did not play anymore. Along with that, one Australian batsman was struck on the temple and he fell to the ground in an unconscious state. The spectators started to get so angry that they threatened to jump over the fence and raid the pitch.
The tactic infuriated the Australian Board of Control that they sent telegrams to the Marleybourn Cricket Club (MCC) saying that ties between the two countries would be severed as a result of the bodyline tactic. The England team wanted to ruin the game of cricket only to get back their lost pride. This attitude of the English captain, Jardine was the most unsportsmanlike that the game of cricket had ever seen and cricket seemed to be on a path of destruction.
The test series ended with some very strong statistics from the English bowlers. The highest bowling average of the series was from Harry Larwood at 19.52 runs per wicket and he also got the best bowling figures of the series by getting 5 wickets for 28 runs. The interesting statistic of the series was that Douglas Jardine got the most individual catches at 9. This was probably due to the bodyline tactic as most batsmen who were bowled short pitched deliveries played top edged shots and he would be easily catch them. The series ended and the relations between both teams and countries soured.
In conclusion to this ugly tale of controversial cricket, the tactic of bodyline was outlawed and the umpire was given discretionary powers to protect the batsmen from bowling at the body. This did little to fix things between the two nations and English products were boycotted in Australia and English immigrants were ridiculed in the country. The situation was calmed only when World War II broke out. Slowly and steadily, the situation between the two countries got better and now the Ashes series is played with goodwill and fairness by both teams.
In the end, Harry Larwood refused to sign an apology document and left cricket for good. He later immigrated to Australia and was welcomed with open arms. The Bodyline Series messed Donald Bradman's batting average which is why he finished at 99.94 runs per match. This one series did so much damage to the reputation of cricket that it only recovered many years later.
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