Bodyline-Sydney-"They want to see you broken"

[@Davelikesmotown]

Douglas Jardine, the best Cricket captain that England have ever had. Played to win!

[@q1pit1]

Mate Jardine would be fucking banned today

[@foddyfoddy]

seepsrunbee For using sandpaper on the ball, you mean?

[@RohitRaj-ti4jh]

@@q1pit1 You are Australian Supporter

[@RohitRaj-ti4jh]

Yes Jardine has a great ideas in cricket

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

Because of you Mr Anderson, because of you.

[@zahrans]

I'm no longer an agent of this system.

[@CinnAlla]

@Imrankniazi I'm with you on this. Former Australian Test captain Ian Chappell rates Jardine's captaincy very highly, says his decision to order fast, short-pitched balls on leg stump was within the rules of the game, and was a legitimate way of attacking the batting averages of the opposition. I agree. When I was young and played cricket I had ball-shaped bruises all over me - it was part of the game. Stan McCabe showed that fast leg bowling was playable during the 32/33/ Ashes series.

[@esucil]

I used to love this as a kid.. they used to show it in a local channel in srilanka in some odd hour and i used to stay up to watch it..

[@aadrath1236]

Leg Theory of Cricket Bowling : Bowl bouncers between the middle and the leg stump so that the batsman has less time to react. Keep the onside packed with fielders inside the 30 yard so that when the batsman nudges/edges the ball he is caught.

[@Fricasso79]

Australian media loves to point out which England players are south-african born. They can't mention Trott or KP or Prior or even Strauss without mentioning 'south-african born' at some point. I wonder if they were the same with 'Indian born' Jardine.

[@Imrankniazi]

Respect for Gilchrist..A great batsman, but an even greater sportsman.

[@brannie276]

Brilliant sportsmanship by Woodfull. We're unlikely to see another cricketer like him

[@tomodude6542]

i personnally think that is the most sportsmanship ever displayed by a cricketer in the game's history.

[@Bernie8330]

If I'm not mistaken Larwood then went and scored 98 as a nightwatchmen in that same final test.

[@cavalier080854]

After this series, the english bowlers returned to their counties and played this style of attack in the english counties matches. Jardin played against bodyline and was hit repeatedly without complaint. A case of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. If you cant take it, don't dish it out.

[@CinnAlla]

@getupkid1984 Bill Voce used it as well as Larwood. It was also used the following season by West Indian bowlers Constantine and Martindale. Martindale was about as fast as Larwood, but Jardine kept his nerve, soaked up the bowling and made a century - against "bodyline" bowling!

[@gthotshot]

WOW, excellent strokeplay, some fiery bowling there.

[@cavalier080854]

England used Bodyline tactics, in the blue caps are bowling, Australia, in the baggy green caps are batting.

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris Well that of course is the whole matter of the debate. I would however argue that the "whole idea of bowling" is NOT in fact "to knock the batsman's stumps". There are other aspects of bowling, such as to tempt a batsman to play at a ball which moves away, creating a catching opportunity. Also the object of "fast leg theory" bowling was not to "knock the batsman out", but to restrict, intimidate, and to tempt into rash shots; there's plenty of contemporary evidence.

[@cavalier080854]

Larwood, Voce and Bowes all bowled Bodyline. Only Gubby Allen (who was an amateur)refused to bowl this style of attack.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla of course and as a cricketer myself I have scars and lumps too but I iterate that you would've been wearing protection whilst you received these injuries by much slower bowlers, players we're knocked unconscious, they had broken jaws they received all manner of injuries as a result of this tactic.

[@CaptainMark87]

@Imrankniazi Once the bell is rung, there's no way to unring it. They have been captured and memorialized. Happy new year.

[@CinnAlla]

@raunaksood It was the MMC tour of Australia in the winter of 1932/33

[@fireblade9299]

i got an origianl copy off ebay, came from australia, good buy but different region so make sure u have a dvd player that can play it, also got anzacs too, nearlly all the same actors.

[@vizmouli]

@GERAINT17 U forget one crucial part. No helmets then. Today even a tailender batsman is not afraid to take a blow knowing his head wont be blown off.

[@yogikanna]

which team is bowling and which team is batting. Which team used the bodyline technique?

[@JasonRadley]

@Roper122 Did England ever demonise Punter or Warney?

[@cavalier080854]

Yes, this clip is essentially correct, Larwood finished the over with the ball paddled back to him, though i'm not sure about the picking the ball up part.

[@1546592]

The short bowling amployed by Lindwall and Miller, Lillee and Thompson, McGrath, Gillespie and Lee and the countless great bowlers of the Windies from 1976 to 1999 relied on catching from fielders in the slip cordon. To score runs against these attacks you had to be the best but you were still able to deploy the full range of strokes. With bodyline you couldn't as you can't very well hit a ball from a fast bowler on the leg side to the off.

[@cavalier080854]

Yes, i obtained it from e-bay, unfortunately it is only available in PAL region 4.

[@tryarunm]

Those were the days when Australian cricketers set the example to follow. Today...

[@CinnAlla]

“If you want to encapsulate what Test cricket is all about, just look at what Jardine did... Bradman at that stage had an average of about a hundred. So what Jardine decided to do was to try to cut his average down. If you want to increase your chances of winning in a Test Series, you’ve got to try and disrupt the averages of the best players in the opposition… I’ve always looked upon Jardine as a very smart captain and obviously a very good captain” - Ian Chappell, Capt of Australia 1971-75

[@jacktattis]

Well what do you expect from Chappell he was never a true blue Australian

[@Imrankniazi]

@CinnAlla I cannot say that I am surprised. For the first time in over a decade, I have serious questions about the ability of an Australian attack to take 20 wickets to win a Test. It'll be interesting to see if the hosts can up their game for the third one!

[@Imrankniazi]

@Roper122 The only difference is that they employed 4 men on the leg side to get the batsman fending off. Clive Lloyd always had two short-legs for his bowlers. In special cases (for eg. against David Steele) an extra leg gully was employed as well. The intention was always to hit the batsman on his body, get him fending off or backing away. In Jardine's case that was berated as 'bodyline' but if Ian Chappell or Lloyd does it, it is called a 'master tactic'. Some double standards there!

[@cavalier080854]

The point i was trying to make was, if an apology had to be made it should have been given by Jardin, though no apology should have been given.

[@tryarunm]

Honestly, Woodfull was a gentleman par excellence.

[@Imrankniazi]

@Roper122 "Every single example you mentioned was from the 70s." Fair enough. How about Bishop and Walsh against Robin Smith and co. in WI's Eng tour (late 80s)? Holding bowling three beamers (NOT bouncers) to Syed Kirmani in Madras, 1984? Or Donald targetting Michael Atherton famously in 1998? Fast bowlers have always used pace to injure or frighten batsman. Jardine was the first to do it in 1932 and thus drew flak. I would still maintain that he was a man ahead of his time!

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@moss7573 no but thats where most of the bowls ended up, the whole point of bowling is knock the batsman's stumps not knock the batsman out

[@Stokie09123]

@irishgodfatherchris And after all this we've come to the reason as to why bodyline was so successful, a masterstroke by Jardine.

[@1546592]

Bodyline was a perfectly legitimate tactic & it is bloody annoying hearing about the whinging over bodyline (and the windies attack of the 80s) by Aussies. Especially considering the tactics employed by Lindwall and Miller, Lillee and Thompson and Lee, McGrath and Gillespie, all of whom were very fast, not afraid of using the short ball and great bowlers. What made me glad they changed the rules concerning the bodyline tactic was that it restricted the attacking options of the batsman.

[@Playtechy]

What to you suggest to Ponting; to be more sportsman like?

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla I never once mentioned that it was a quote I said thats essentially in his mind what he decided because if he didn't bodyline wouldn't have happened

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla be that as it may but the whole idea of bowling is to knock the batsman's stumps not knock him out yes it was legal but was it in the spirit of the game

[@raunaksood]

in which year was this match played?

[@Imrankniazi]

@Roper122 What is so difficult to understand here? I gave Clive Lloyd just as an example because he had the means to do it. Same with Chappelli. In the 1930s, this kind of tactic was not heard of. I realise that and in a sense Jardine gave the game a new direction. Field restrictions were brought in after that but it did little to discourage captains from employing this theory. Everybody has missed the basic point and is demonising Jardine. How far would this 'moral policing' work?

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla and your using an Australian player from 40 years ago to make your point here, would you like to face a 90 mph ball coming directly at your body without padding at a constant rate

[@scottharrison4628]

best captain

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris Actually both myself and my late father played our cricket before the days of protection. Like Bradman, McCabe, and Jardine all we had were pads and a box. My father regularly faced overseas professionals (Windies, Indians, Aussies) who bowled to a high standard and damned fast. Myself less so, I grant you.

[@eagerterrier]

@ronnydev Yes, Bill Woodfull did indeed just pat it back to Larwood. In this day and age, simply unbelievable sportsmanship - look up Bill_Woodfull#Bodyline on wikipedia - towards the bottom of that section

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@Stokie09123 so they say but when you are bowling intentionally at the batsman's body and nowhere else there is clearly the intention of hitting him and in many cases they did

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris 1] You too are using examples from the past (actually almost 80 years ago rather than 40). 2] Both I and my late father have faced just such bowling, maybe not quite as accurate as Larwood, but I have had loads of bruises and a couple of fat lips.

[@Stokie09123]

@irishgodfatherchris The whole point of bowling is to take a wicket, not bowl him out, in this case bouncers on the leg side were the orders of the day.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla Jardine was born in British India not the Republic so he was a Brit to begin with but fact that in order to win he decided if I can't get them out I'll knock them out instead.

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris I don't really understand why you consider Ian Chappell's words so irrelevant, irrespective of how long ago he played and when he said them. His words come from a transcript of a series of talks about who were the best Ashes captains in his opinion (on cricinfo.com). He's a cricketer of good standing, an Aussie, and was a fine captain.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla my point still stands regarding him whether he said it yesterday or 30 years ago it doesn't matter

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@xwingclass then explain why he had bowlers aiming at the batsman's body, if he didn't want to injure them why did he employ the tactic

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@Fricasso79 well how bad must your county players be if you require half an overseas team to win

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla aiming at the body of the batsman has the obvious intention of doing some serious damage to the batsman especially when they don't have padding of any kind on their person

[@055697]

next time i captain my club side i am gonna say ''leg theory please harold''.

[@CinnAlla]

[By the way folks, the words of Ian Chappell that I quoted are from 2010]

[@055697]

You can't really blame the English for using bodyline. After all, Bradman was a run machine and so they had to find a way, any way, of stopping him. Actually, few wickets and few injuries were incurred with bodyline fields and it wasn't always used. I think the Australians might have thought up a few ingenious tactics if they had been faced with a batsman like Bradman. I saw Michael Holding and co regularly let the short ball fly against clueless tail end batsmen so that is how it goes.

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris " I never once mentioned that it was a quote I said thats essentially in his mind what he decided because if he didn't bodyline wouldn't have happened." You would have to be a mind-reader to be able to state that. Actually consider the available evidence and you might change your opinion. I'm not asking you to like bodyline bowling, just to be objective about the subject.

[@amyindi3635]

WHICH MATRIX VERSION IS THIS. DID ORACLE KNEW ABOUT THIS

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris Ah, at least we agree about something, Benaud, Bradman, Border, and Taylor were fine skippers. Let's leave it there for today, as we're not getting anywhere with the rest of the debate.

[@cavalier080854]

Bizarre, but true. After this series, Lords asked Larwood to sign an apology to australian cricket. Even though he was a miner, married with kids, he asked if he could consult his mother. Who replied "Harold, if you sign that, you'll never see me alive again". A ringing endorsement for the sportsmanship of her son. The apology should have been given by Jardin, the England skipper.

[@tryarunm]

The apology should have been given by the MCC to the Australian Cricket Board. In fact, the MCC has not yet mustered up the courage to deliver that apology. Japan has apologised to China for war crimes, but the English have not apologised for their unsportsman-like behaviour on the field. The cads.

[@CinnAlla]

@Imrankniazi Meanwhile England have just won the Second Ashes Test at Adelaide by an innings and 71 runs. Cricket is now in the 21st century. :)

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@xwingclass then how is it that as a result the Australian keeper received major damage to his body after he copped a 85mph ball in the head

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@cavalier080854 but since Allen was actually an Australian you'd understand why he refused

[@Stokie09123]

@irishgodfatherchris With the intention of causing deflections via the bat to the leg side field.

[@Imrankniazi]

@ASkywalker1 Unquestionably!

[@CinnAlla]

[Some of my comments are disappearing as I post them - apologies if duplicates turn up]

[@redcoatgaming4141]

the Australian captain when he said one team is playing cricket(England) the other making no attempt to do so (Australia) that what he meant the aussies only complained about "bodyline" because they lost

[@goodshipkaraboudjan]

+Kate Bush fan 98 22 And England complained so much the MCC banned it the following year when the West Indies did the same to England. On softer pitches that gave less bounce mind you.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@Stokie09123 when the ball is coming at you at 90 mph 99 times out of 100 you can't get out of the way.

[@Roper122]

@JasonRadley " Bodyline and Gallipoli - the Aussies have got an obsession about demonising the Poms for national defeats. " Don't know about Gallipoli.. but in the case of Bodyline.. they've clearly got a point.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@xwingclass that was a one off whilst you were fielding these batsmen were consistently forced to defend their lives how would you like it if you had every bowler aiming every delivery at your head

[@irishgodfatherchris]

true the but the idea of fast leg theory is deliberatley bowling into the body of the batsmen which is not only dangerous but potentially illegal

[@vijaygattupallia]

i still don't get what the fuss is about,one can step out and clear the infield.even if he misses,the likelihood of the bowl going over the bails is more.

[@figjam999]

@EnigmaticMayur You do realise it's an actor right? It's not actually Bradman? 99.94 makes a mockery of your claim.

[@GERAINT17]

Nothing in the bodyline series would be considered exceptional today, even at county level. Just because (as usual) the Brits got there first doesn't make it unsportsman-like. Look at the windies in the 70's snd how they roughed up the likes of Brian Close.

[@JasonRadley]

Bodyline and Gallipoli - the Aussies have got an obsession about demonising the Poms for national defeats.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

ahh... Yeah it is if a Policeman thinks that it over steps the boundary so to speak he could chrge them on summons (in Australia that has happened)

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@Stokie09123 with the intention of hitting him, not getting him out.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla farewell then ladeen.

[@CinnAlla]

@055697 Nah - say what they say in the Windies: "Rough him up a bit". :)

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla if you intentionally bowl at someone's body you clearly have the objective of injuring them with secondary objective of actually getting them out.

[@paramoreistheshiz]

i agree but how when hes bowling round his legs lol

[@Roper122]

@Imrankniazi .... I see, and did Clive Lloyd play in 30's? Seems to me you keep avoiding the point... could it be that you're comparing the 70's to the 30's? Clive Lloyd of course had fielding restrictions...restrictions that were brought in..surprise, surprise - after body line, funny that. Hmmmmmm.

[@imemadhu]

The series in wich Bradmans average fell low to 2 digits.....low to 60....

[@gatesrocks]

Whatever happened to Australian sportsmanship over the last 7 decades?

[@irishgodfatherchris]

i meant in a criminal sense

[@CinnAlla]

@wpcooper1978 He's not the first cricketer to be self opinionated and won't be the last. Jeff Boycott springs to mind... :-)

[@Stokie09123]

@irishgodfatherchris Then it's the batsman's job to get out of the way. That's Cricket.

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris Re "overseas players" - overused argument!

[@TheKing2494]

lolz Elrond playing cricket

[@Bushmansmeg]

fucken, there's so much in cricket that you just don't see if your an outsider. this film is great

[@a.Hopeful]

WTF did I just watch... ? The last 3 deliveries were comical.... And they say cricket is a gentleman's game....... :D

[@Wilshire101]

That is a ridiculous comment to make. No team deserves that sort of unsportsmanlike treatment, not Australia, not England, not even India. The Australian cricket team were perfect Gentlemen at the time that this series was played, unfortunately that can't be said for the present lot, excepting Hussey and Gilchrist. But nor can it be said of the Indian team, excepting perhaps Tendulkar.

[@808D3]

Bizarre

[@CinnAlla]

@irishgodfatherchris I'm a Scot! LOL

[@paramoreistheshiz]

id charge it and send it down the ground and make him run lol

[@1546592]

But if you are good enough you can hit a ball from the off side to the leg. This is why I am glad they changed the rules but there was nothing wrong with the tactic and to suggest as much is bloody stupid.

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla I do not rate Chappell as a captain, I do however for Benaud, Bradman, Border and Taylor. Also did they ask any other living captains of their opinions too. the point of bowling as I said is to knock the batsman's stumps (thats why they're there in the first place) not knock the batsman out, which was clearly Jardine's intention if it wasn't he wouldn't have tried it or he at least wouldn't have done it to all 11 players on the Australian team

[@gt3107]

oi its an aussie movie

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@CinnAlla half of your team aren't English all of your key players are South African or Irish