Douglas Jardine was much ahead of his times in his approach to the game of cricket. His reliance on a battery of multiple fast bowlers with a relentless barrage of short-pitched bowling for hours on end leaving the batsmen no respite save to succumb to it was later replicated by Clive Loyd with his fearsome foursome pace attack. Jardine's insistence on extreme physical fitness for his fast bowlers is today the watchword for all cricketers. Lastly, Jardine had envisaged cricket as a team game where the whole team acted in unison to a specific plan to outwit the opposing side. This coordination of effort, application of will, working in tandem to a game-plan, exploiting the limits of the game while remaining within its laws totally nonchalant about the spirit of the game with the one aim to winning is today what professionalism in cricket is all about.
Yet, those were early days and the ride for the sides combating in the Bodyline Ashes Series of 1932-33 was rough. England won 4-1 but the mutual animosity of the two teams rose to such a pitch following the physical damage inflicted by bodyline bowling on the Australian batsmen that diplomatic relations between the two countries ran the risk of severing. The following summer Australia banned bodyline bowling on her soil. This was soon followed by the International Cricket Conference (ICC) outlawing bodyline bowling by changing the laws of the game. Field restrictions were imposed limiting leg-side field placement to a maximum of five. This reduced the effectiveness of aggressive 'leg theory' which 'bodyline' was and restored cricket and cricketing ties between England and Australia to normalcy.
Don Bradman whom Douglas Jardine had attempted to neutralise with his infamous weapon continued to thrive with a record-breaking career spanning 20 years till he retired a triumphant hero in 1948. Harold Larwood refused to apologise before the MCC for his intimidatory bodyline bowling and never played for England again. Jardine lost his captaincy and retired. The Bodyline Ashes Series of 1932-33 remained confined to history books as a one-off extreme case when cricket was not quite cricket on the playing field and was the sporting equivalent of war.
Yet, those were early days and the ride for the sides combating in the Bodyline Ashes Series of 1932-33 was rough. England won 4-1 but the mutual animosity of the two teams rose to such a pitch following the physical damage inflicted by bodyline bowling on the Australian batsmen that diplomatic relations between the two countries ran the risk of severing. The following summer Australia banned bodyline bowling on her soil. This was soon followed by the International Cricket Conference (ICC) outlawing bodyline bowling by changing the laws of the game. Field restrictions were imposed limiting leg-side field placement to a maximum of five. This reduced the effectiveness of aggressive 'leg theory' which 'bodyline' was and restored cricket and cricketing ties between England and Australia to normalcy.
Don Bradman whom Douglas Jardine had attempted to neutralise with his infamous weapon continued to thrive with a record-breaking career spanning 20 years till he retired a triumphant hero in 1948. Harold Larwood refused to apologise before the MCC for his intimidatory bodyline bowling and never played for England again. Jardine lost his captaincy and retired. The Bodyline Ashes Series of 1932-33 remained confined to history books as a one-off extreme case when cricket was not quite cricket on the playing field and was the sporting equivalent of war.
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