Bodyline

Bodyline, also known as Fast Leg Theory, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. Bodyline bowlers deliberately aimed the cricket ball at the bodies of batsmen, in the hope of creating legside deflections which could be caught by one of several fielders located in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

Genesis of Bodyline

The Australian cricket team toured England in 1930. Australia won the five-Test series 2-1, with Don Bradman scoring an astounding 974 runs at a batting average of 139.14, an aggregate record that stands to this day.

Related Topics:
Australian cricket team - England - 1930 - Test - Runs - Batting average

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After the series, Douglas Jardine – who would later be appointed England's captain for the 1932–33 English tour of Australia – devised a plan with Nottinghamshire captain Arthur Carr and his two fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to combat Bradman's extraordinary skills. At a meeting in London's Piccadilly Hotel, the Oxford-educated Jardine asked Larwood and Voce if they could bowl on leg stump and make the ball come up into the body of the batsman. The bowlers agreed they could, and that it might prove effective.

Related Topics:
Douglas Jardine - Nottinghamshire - Arthur Carr - Fast bowler - Harold Larwood - Bill Voce - London - Oxford - Stump

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Accompanying this bowling line would be a cordon of close fielders set on the leg side. The result was that the batsman had to choose to either take evasive action from balls aimed at his body and head, or attempt to fend the ball away with the bat, possibly giving catching chances to the close-set leg side field.

Related Topics:
Fielders - Leg side - Bat

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Larwood and Voce practised the plan over the next two seasons of English county cricket, terrorising their opponents as Nottinghamshire finished near the top of the competition each year. By the time the English team left for Australia in October 1932, Larwood and Voce, along with Bill Bowes from Yorkshire, had perfected their attack.

Related Topics:
County cricket - 1932 - Yorkshire

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