THE very next delivery hit Woodfull just above the heart. “Well bowled, Harold!” called out Jardine coolly, as Woodfull reeled and gasped. Bert Oldfield later retired hurt with a fractured skull.
The atmosphere in the stadiums was already sour; Jardine, in his multi-coloured Harlequins cap, was the Australians’ very image of aristocratic English villainy. As bouncers flew, and grievances and in-fighting on both sides were leaked to the press, it became toxic. The Australians officially accused the MCC of bad sportsmanship,* and fears grew for trade relations between the two countries. Jardine was shaken – but vindicated, as Bradman averaged a paltry 56.57 for the series,* which England won 4-1.
Two years later the MCC changed the rules to allow only two fielders behind square on the leg side, mitigating the risk of getting caught; yet cricket tests physical courage and intimidatory bowling remains part of the game. In the Bodyline series, cricket had arguably come of age. But she had also lost her innocence.
The MCC, at that time also cricket’s ruling body, ‘deplored’ the slur, but after the dust had settled on the Bodyline series they called in Harold Larwood and with baffling hypocrisy demanded an apology from him for his intimidatory bowling. Larwood, the son of a Nottinghamshire coal miner, had the temerity to remind them that the tactic was not his but Jardine’s. The officials saw to it that Larwood never played for England again.
For any other batsman in the game’s history such an average would have been a matter of pride, but it was roughly half what Bradman had come to expect. He finished his Test career with an average of 99.94 over 52 matches. So far, no other batsman with 20 games or more to his name has maintained an average beyond the low sixties.
See the scorecard for the Adelaide Test at CricInfo.