During the 1932/33 Test series in Australia, Harold Larwood took 33 wickets for England, helping England regain the Ashes and win the series by four matches to one.
Yet, he never played for his country again, and was largely ostracised by the cricketing establishment for his role as the chief executioner of the Bodyline tactic.
The tactic was the brainchild of England captain Douglas Jardine, who believed that pitching the ball short on the leg stump and aiming at the body of the batsmen was a way to combat the Australian scoring, especially of Don Bradman, who had piled on the runs during his country’s last tour of England.
The bowlers would be supported by an umbrella of fielders – usually six to eight – on the leg side, often behind the batter.
However, for that, Jardine needed bowlers of serious pace, and Larwood, along with Bill Voce, Bill Bowes, and Gubby Allen, provided him with that. It is another thing that Allen refused to bowl Bodyline.
The controversy really began in the third test at Adelaide where Larwood struck Bill Woodfull over the heart. Then Bert Oldfield, leaning into a ball, top-edged, and was hit on the head with another, fracturing his skull in the process.
The crowd were infuriated, although Larwood always insisted that he had not meant to hit anybody directly. But the press were scathing in their comments. Hate mail began to pour in. When Larwood was at a local theatre with teammates, a six-year old Australian girl told her mother, ‘he doesn’t look like a murderer.’
Even after his return to England, Larwood continued to receive threatening and abusive letters from Australians. His fellow countrymen were equally unforgiving, disowning him and his tactics, and his lack of sporting spirit.
Larwood believed that he had done nothing wrong, and had merely followed his captain’s orders, as would be expected of any professional cricketer.
However, he did stoke the fires in several ghosted newspaper articles, in which he called Woodfull – whose widow later claimed the blow he received for taking several years off his life – ‘slow’, Bradman, ‘scared’, and the Australians in general as bad losers.
Politics then took over. With the Australians threatening to cancel the return tour in 1934, the MCC decided that no Bodyline would be bowled. And England tour manager Plum Warner, who had been the first to congratulate Larwood at the time, distanced himself from the fast bowler and Jardine.
Jardine fell on his sword and declared that he would not play against the Australians. Larwood was told that he would need to apologise in order to be selected for the Test team, something he adamantly refused to do.
He never played for England again.
Ironically, he later emigrated to Australia, and was given belated recognition of his services to cricket with an MBE at the age of 88 years old.