Daniel Norcross - Five Books on Cricket

"Reflecting the imperial politics of cricket?

Imperial politics and cricket are inseparable. It’s the sport of Empire and, unlike other sports, it’s extremely limited in its range of interested countries. It just so happens that those countries are enormously influential: England, Pakistan, India – over a billion people there – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia and all the Caribbean islands.
What was Bodyline?

Briefly it was a technique designed to combat a single Australian batsman, Don Bradman, who, a couple of years before the 1932-33 Bodyline tour, murdered the English team on their own ground. Bodyline was developed after cine footage of Bradman suggested he didn’t like a short high ball aimed at his chest, so the English got a young fast bowler in to deliver exactly that kind of ball, right at the ribs. That bowler was Harold Larwood, the fastest in England – in the world probably. He was whippet-thin, working-class, a miner from Nottinghamshire – malnourished but fast as fuck.

Bradman’s batting average is cut by 50 per cent. The Australian crowd went berserk: 5,000 police were required to keep them off the pitch in Adelaide. A telegram was sent by the Australian captain saying only one side was playing cricket. The Australians were whining about intimidation, but it’s my strongly held view that Bodyline was perfectly reasonable.

Why?

Because it was a perfectly legitimate ball. I mean, if you can’t play a ball off your ribs, tough shit. The Australians massively overreacted. They were outraged because the English arrived determined to do what it took to win. But the tragedy was that Larwood, having defeated Bradman, returned to a divided country. The English had dropped a nuclear bomb, and a lot of people didn’t like that. The rules of cricket were changed to stop the same thing happening again, and the whole thing was swept under the carpet.

The result was that Larwood never played test match cricket again and eventually settled in, of all places, Australia, where actually he fitted in well, was taken in and accepted and felt at home. There’s no doubt who the hero is, or the villain: the bastard Bradman."

Daniel Norcross - Five Books on Cricket