‘Well bowled, Harold!’ Ninety years on, England’s Bodyline tactics retain heat

Australia’s Bill Woodfull ducks to avoid a rising ball from England’s Harold Larwood in the fourth Test of the infamous Bodyline series. Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

In this era of cricketing glut, some matches pound through the sausage machine so effectively, they might never have happened at all. But one series continues to hold fast in the imagination: England’s Bodyline tour to Australia of 1932-33.

It was 90 years ago on Wednesday that the Australian Cricket Board swallowed their pride and sent a cable to the MCC, taking back their earlier complaints of “unsportsmanlike” behaviour by the English cricket team, who had been pounding down brutal leg theory bowling in the name of victory. It was done through gritted teeth, under pressure from the then Australian prime minister Joseph Lyon, who had warned the grandees that a British boycott of Australian goods would be devastating.