The bodyline cricket series, 1932 -1933

Cables and Radio scripts from Summer 1932-33

Bodyline

The Australian summer of 1932–33 saw the introduction to test cricket of a new form of bowling attack that achieved notoriety as ‘bodyline’. The English captain, Douglas Jardine, directed fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to aim at the batsmen rather than the stumps. At the third test in Adelaide, the Australian captain, Bill Woodfull, was struck a stunning blow over the heart, and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield suffered a fractured skull. Although England won the series, bodyline soured relations between Australia and Britain for some years.

The Gillette Safety Razor Company sponsored the reporting of the 1932–33 cricket series. Brief descriptions of each day’s play in Australia were cabled by a journalist to Radio Paris where they were transformed into scripts which were then broadcast to Britain. Restrictions on commercial radio broadcasting in Britain necessitated this roundabout device. The cables were often censored to erase critical references to the bowling of Larwood and Voce. This was typical of the reporting of the series by the English media, which tended to play down the true nature of bodyline.
Display item The bodyline cricket series, 1932 -1933

 

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