Australia vs England : 1st Ever Test Match in 1877 And The Infamous Bodyline Series

1st Ever Test Match And The Infamous Bodyline Series Of 1932-33

The oldest and the most fierce rivalry in cricket is between Australia and England, going back 140 years when the first ever official Test match was played on 15th March, 1877 with the Australia and England teams being captained by Dave Gregory and James Lillywhite respectively. Australian Charles Bannerman became the first batsman to score a hundred in Test Cricket. Unlike today, where 6 balls made an over, in those days 4 legal deliveries were enough to be considered as an over.

Charles Bannerman - First Batsman To Score A Hundred In Test Cricket

Since that first test series which ended at 1-1 scoreline, with Australia winning the first test followed by a win for England, these two teams have been involved in high-profile encounters. One such series which we are going to talk about is the infamous 'Bodyline Series of 1932-33', where England captain Douglas Jardine with the help of his deadly fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce used their captain's bizarre tactics of bowling towards the body of the batsmen on the line of leg stump. We discuss about the series in great detail later on.. First let's talk about why Australia-England series is known as The Ashes.

How Did Ashes Series Get its Name?

The Ashes, name by which we all know Australia-England series, kicked off in the year 1882 after nine tests had already been played between the two sides. In that year on their tour of England, Australians had played just one Test at The Oval in London. The test was a low scoring affair and England required only 85 runs to win the match but Australian fast bowler, Fred Spofforth had other plans. In the 2nd innings, he was instrumental in inspiring his teammates to go for the kill. He picked up 7/44, getting the final 4 of his wickets for only 2 runs to give his team an improbable seven-run win. The Oval crowd watched the proceedings in utter disbelief.

The loss was so tough for the Englishmen to digest, that they had termed it as Death of English Cricket and in The Sporting Times, a weekly British newspaper where a mock obituary was written.

This satirical obituary gave birth to the term "Ashes" and that's how England-Australia series has been known by this name since then.

ARRIVAL OF THE DON

The year 1928 saw Donald Bradman, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time, make his debut against England but the 1930 series became the defining moment in his career when he was truly unstoppable and amassed a staggering 974 runs in 5 Tests against England, which involved one hundred, two double hundreds and a triple hundred.

Bradman acknowledges the cheers of the crowd on reaching his triple century at Headingley
against England

THE BODYLINE SERIES: 1932-33

Cricket's most famous and undoubtedly the most controversial series was played in the 1932-33 Ashes series on Australian soil. Remembering that Bradman had struggled against bouncers in the 1930 Oval Test when he had scored 232, England captain Douglas Jardine combined traditional leg theory with short-pitched bowling to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Bradman.

Harold Larwood - The Chief Exponent Of Bodyline Bowling

Douglas Jardine

He used his two weapons in Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to implement and do justice to the plan. Larwood's unusual speed with great accuracy made him lethal and one of the most fearsome bowlers to face in those uncovered pitches. He was a great exponent of the "Bodyline" tactics, where the deliveries were directed towards the body of the batsman with fielders kept on the leg side and thus the batsmen had only two options, either to duck or get caught by the fielders surrounding them. The balls delivered by Larwood and Voce were of such speed and accuracy that it was almost impossible for the batsmen to duck under the ball, thus resulting in batsmen getting hit on a regular basis. The tactics were considered by many as intimidatory and physically threatening. The Bodyline which was supposed to curb the natural instincts of Don Bradman eventually caused trouble to every Aussie batsmen. Bill Woodfull got struck over the heart by a Harold Larwood delivery and Bert Oldfield's skull getting fractured, thanks to the same bowler. With mounted police outside the ground, it seemed as if a riot was about to break out.

Bodyline Series - Australian Captain Bill Woodfull trying to evade a bouncer from
Larwood but getting struck over the heart

 Wisden noted this was "probably the most unpleasant Test ever played...altogether the whole atmosphere was a disgrace to cricket." Jardine successfully implemented the tactics of Bodyline bowling and achieved two things out of it: First, preventing Bradman from scoring freely. The Bodyline Series saw Bradman's worst average of 56.57 in his test career. Bradman had missed the First Test at The Sydney Cricket Ground due to contract issues, so it was during the 2nd Test at The MCG, when he about to face the hostile English bowlers and confront their Bodyline tactics, devised primarily for him. Unfortunately, the legend was bowled by Bowes for a duck, until that time it was only the 2nd of his career. 

Don Bradman getting bowled by Bill Bowes for a duck at the MCG

Repercussions

The repercussions which the happenings in the series evoked were hysterical in nature. MCC tour manager, Pelham Warner who tried to smooth relationship which had turned sour for the obvious reasons, was given a mouthful by Australian captain Bill Woodfull in 25 words, regarded as the most famous 25 words in the sport. "I don't want to see you, Mr. Warner. There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not." The comment was leaked to the media, resulting in Australian Board of Control for International Cricket sent a cable to the MCC, describing England's tactics as "unsportsmanlike". MCC reacted with incredulity that the tactics used by the England were unsportsmanlike and felt it was out of the question for a man of Jardine's character to behave in such a manner. Jardine threatened to withdraw his team from the last two tests unless the allegation was retracted. MCC went on to introduce a new rule to the laws of cricket for the 1935 English cricket season. They hoped that the game would be played in the right spirit and a resolution was passed that bodyline bowling would violate this spirit but unfortunately it had proved to be insufficient leading to another law getting passed, wherein "direct attack" bowling was termed unfair and put the onus on the umpires to identify and stop.