This is a mini-series that reviews the events surrounding the 1932-33 Ashes cricket games in Australia that became known as the Bodyline series. The series is woven around the three key players ? Douglas Jardine, the English Captain, Don Bradman, the Australian who was best batsman in the world at the time (and retains that crown to this day) and Harold Larwood, the English fast bowler whose speed with the ball was at the heart of the controversy.

We are introduced to the series through the eyes of the woman who fell in love with Jardine, although I am not sure that the view is maintained right through the series. Jardine was a product of British upper class society whose parents sent him from India to England to complete his schooling. This rather sad temporary abandonment of the boy led to an initially lonely existence that was turned through Jardine?s prowess at cricket. He eventually rose through the ranks of schoolboy and County cricket to lead England on the six-month tour to Australia.

Jardine showed an admirable obsessiveness in trying to find a way to solve a problem. Unfortunately he chose to seek physical intimidation through fast bowling aimed at the batsman to do it. And he decided he had to do it because he was faced with a phenomenon in the form of Bradman, the batsman who took the idea of making runs to heights unheard of before he arrived on the scene and unheard of since. Jardine reasoned that a group of four fast bowlers who bowled at the batsman would force unusual shots that would be caught in a close ring of fieldsmen. If not, the intimidation would lead to the batsman losing his wicket in more conventional ways.

Bradman averaged 99.94 over his entire career, which is almost two-thirds better than any other batsman. Jardine figured that by curtailing Bradman?s influence, England would be able to win back the Ashes. Larwood was expected to play his part in the plan by leading the attack on the batsmen with very fast bowling directed at the batsman?s body.

Jardine argued that this was a version of ?Leg Theory?, a plan of attack that had been used previously. He did not see that he was breaching either the laws or the spirit of the game and was resolute in having the people around him do their jobs they way he wanted. If they didn?t, they didn?t play for England while he was in charge.

When he unleashed the plan against the Australian batsmen in the last lead up game to the Test series a furore broke out as the intention of the plan became clear. The fact that the plan was implemented against both the best batsmen and those with lesser talent enraged the sporting public in Australia. Fanned by the press, who dubbed the plan ?Bodyline?, the cricket matches were seen almost as war and led to a furious debate in cricketing circles both here and in England.

As a sub-plot that provides a lovely aside to the main Bodyline theme, history shows that Bradman was in dispute over his non-cricket employment and might never had even played had the dispute not been worked out to the satisfaction of the Australian Cricket Board. It is ironic that he went on to become Chairman of the ACB in his latter years and helped preside over the negotiations that led to the Packer revolution of World Series Cricket.

Of course, we are talking about the 1930s so there wasn?t the access to TV footage we would have now where every ball can be scrutinised and conclusions drawn. While the Aussies firmly believed that the plan was outside the spirit, if not the laws of cricket and protested vehemently to the English cricket authorities. The series paints the Poms in a less than favourable light; the Australian papers of the day did much the same. Depending upon whether you think winning is everything and any tactic is therefore acceptable will influence your reaction to the series. I for one believe the Poms forgot the greater good of the game in the pursuit of victory and that their success was lessened for it. I might add, it makes beating the Poms to this day even better so the Bodyline series has had a longer-lasting effect than dear old Douglas Jardine ever thought.

The writing is severe on Jardine but not overly so. I thought he came across as a man totally devoted to the pursuit of a goal. He was prepared to go to the edge of the rules and to flout the spirit of the game to win at all costs. Bradman comes across as this folksy guy from the bush who understood that it was all aimed at him. But he was written up to show true Aussie grit and to do the best under difficult circumstances. His average during the series was only half his long-term one but he survived. Larwood is portrayed as a bumpkin from the coal mines who knew how to bowl fast. He also knew how to follow orders and was keen to retrieve his reputation after Bradman savaged it in the 1930 series in England. It is also ironic that he emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s. The long-suffering English Team Manager, Plum Warner, is written up with evident sympathy and has obviously been exonerated by the writers for his part in the whole fracas. The Australian Captain, Bill Woodfull, is presented as a principled man trying to maintain the spirit of the game against severe odds, including some within the Australian team who argued they should have fought fire with fire.

Overall the series takes a relatively reasoned look at a fairly emotionally charged event that had the prospect of doing long-term damage to the relationship between England and one of its colonies. The laws of cricket were changed after the series, but only after the cricket authorities in England had seen the Bodyline plan in action for themselves. The argument continues to this day over whether Jardine was simply overly obsessive or a right royal bastard. I plump for the latter.

THE EXTRAS

There aren?t any. If anything, cricket is a game where there are heaps of statistics if nothing else to add in at the end of the third disk. I would have liked to have scrolled through the scorecards from each Test to see how the series unfolded but there was none of that. A missed opportunity.

CONCLUSION

Douglas Jardine rose to be captain of the English cricket team. He was obsessed with winning the Ashes back from Australia and was prepared to go to the edge to do so. Standing in his way was the famous Australian batsman Don Bradman. Jardine developed a plan to use intimidatory bowling to win and the plan came under fire as it became clear that hurting players was the key to its success. Bodyline, as the plan became infamously known, was used to win the Ashes but sparked changes to the laws of Cricket that banned its use almost immediately after.