Sir Don Bradman, the name of a legend in cricket; if you know cricket, then you also know Sir Bradman. The respect of one’s love for cricket cannot be measured with any ton, bat or ball. A lot of cricket history has been created around him or through him. Bodyline system was born just like that. The English used this technique to stop Don Bradman.

The year was 1930, Ashes series in England. At the end of the series, Sir Don Bradman had scored 974 runs on an average of 139.14 alone, which is still a record! And alone, by destroying the English dream, Australia won the series 2-1. During the Ashes of 1932-33, the English very well understood that if Bradman could not be stopped, this series would drift out of hand.

England’s captain Douglas Jardine found a weakness in Sir Don Bradman’s style of batting. In the previous series, Bradman was having difficulty playing the ball jumping on the leg stamp. From there, the invention of ‘Fast Leg Theory’ or ‘Bodyline’ sparked. It’s not a complex theory. The main strategy was to bowl on the line of leg stamp. The ball needs to be placed quickly straight following the batsman’s body so that it reaches the height of the batsman’s head. There was a lot of risks in practice, it was controversial and at that time the chest guard was not yet invented. There was no restriction on the fielder at the leg side. Even the most recent, the helmet was introduced in the 70s. So, at that time, this method could have severely wounded a batsman.

In this Bodyline tradition, Jardine’s main weapons were Harold Larwood and Bill Vos. Both had the power to aggressively bowl fast paced delivery and maintain perfect line and length. Jardine was successful in this plan. Their pace bowling was like magic. Although this type of bowling which was recognized from this series as Bodyline was seen in the past, this series started prevalent practice of this type of bowling.

The quickest pace bowler of the series, Lorraine Vaughan, has never given comfort to the Australian batsmen. There were five fielders accompanying who were surrounding the leg side. The Australian batsmen were returning one after another from the crease towards the pavilion forced to save themselves from the bullet like balls targeted at their leg stump. They were all caught in the hands of the fielders guarding their trap on the leg side.

Its influence was noticed on the third test of the series, which was especially known for Bodyline. The Australian batsmen, Woodfull and Bart-Oldfield, left the field after being beaten by Larwood in this match where Larwood took 7 wickets. England won by 338 runs. England won the remaining two matches very easily following the same technique in this series. Don Bradman scored 396 which was the highest run in the series, but it was less than half of his own runs in the previous series.

Here is what Sir Donald Bradman had to say about that Ashes Series and the Fast Leg Theory Bowling:

After the series the debate was so intense and bitter that Australia even thought of severing all diplomatic relations with England. Following the third test match, they complained of uncertain mentality, but later Australia withdrew it. But the Bodyline controversy did not stop – it was forced to change the MCC law to stop such dangerous bowling. And the England Cricket Board pressed the blame on Larwood, even though he only obeyed the captain’s order. He was asked to apologize to the board of the two countries to continue his career. But he did not do that and never played national level cricket anymore. Even Bill Voss did not offer a formal apology. It was because back then there was no law against it, and it was not banned.

Although the English media named it a Fast Leg Theory, Hag Bagai (Australian journalist) was the first to use the term “Bodyline”. In order to save the fax expenditure, he wrote “Bodyline” instead of ‘In the Line of Body’. From then on, the term became immortal! In 2004, Bodyline was mentioned as one of the most important and discussed events of cricket in a poll conducted by cricket journalists, commentators and players.