Body-line Bowling

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 11

Body-line Bowling

Sir, —I contest “Not a statement in your issue of this morning, if he intends to assert that Larwood on the last tour of Australia bowled the “body-line” theory being adopted at paesent. My account of the incident refers to at Melbourne states that Kippax, nearing the century, hooked Larwood high to the leg boundary. Seeing this, a trap was laid by a fieldsman being put on the boundary and a short ball later bowled to Kippax, who repeated the stroke and fell into the trap. Perfectly legitimate tactics, of course. Larwood never on the previous tour bowled at the batsman s body with five fieldsmen close in on,the leg. nor in my opinion would such tactics have been permitted by the two captains mentioned. , x , In view of my previous statement to this effect a quotation from the Sydney "Referee” just to hand, dealing with the very point, is apposite: "The final word rests with Jardine. In the minds of Australians, this man as a leader in cricket will never be. bracketed with Stoddart. Chapman, Jones, Gilligan, and Maclaren of the last 40 years, or of earlier captains, such as Lord Harris, Lord Hawke, Ivo Bligh, Aubrey Smith, or any one ol the professional captains, including Jim Lillywhite and Arthur Shrewsbury, and Alfred Shaw. These men would not have countenanced the present tactics. Instances which are given by some ,ot your correspondents of batsmen being injured by other fast bowlers are beside the point. Such accidental occurrences are oart of the game, and are taken as such by true cricketers. The deliberate, adoption of “body-bowling” tactics to date the batsman, who can defend himseit with his bat only at the risk of being caught by one of the fieldsmen close tv him. is in an entirely different category. The insinuation that such fine sportsmen as Woodfull and others (including the Australian Board of Control) are "squealing” merely because Australia has been beaten, can be treated with the contempt it deserves.-Imm Wellington, January 24.