HOBBS ON "BODY-LINE"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 120, 24 May 1933, Page 9

HOBBS ON "BODY-LINE"

J. 13. Hobbs,*ia a statement published recently, made it plain that he was opposed to "body-lino" bowling, •which seemed to him to bo contrary to the spirit of cricket. He stressed the fact that there were elements of danger in it, and asked: "What man, with a. son showing promise of becoming a batsman, would care for his boy- to go te the parks and face * body -line' with the risk of receiving a blow calculated , to inflict life-long injury?" In an amplification of his statement Hobbs explains that the batsman, facing a fast bowler, knows all tho time that, with three or four and sometimes five men close in on, the leg side, he is almost bound to lose his wicket by a catch off a s>troko made merely to protect himseli'. When adopted in first-class cricket, "body-line" bowling is sure to be imitated in club and park cricket, where inferior wickets and bowling increase the risk of: accidents. Furthermore, "body-line" would spoil the attractiveness oil the game, and consequently first-class professionals will be cutting their own throats by reducing the gate money. "Actually," ho says, "I think that Larwood is the only fast bowler able to get the full value out of 'body-line,' because he is as accurate in the length required as is a medium-paced man. But others may arise, and eventually every fast bowler will be adopting it." In pointing out that everyone, of course, is entitled to his opinion, Hobbs states that "thero are in Australia many nien who have played important cricket who thoroughly agree with the method of attack adopted and carried out with su«h determination by Jardinc and his bowlers." Regarding legislation dealing with "body-line," Hobbs belioves that the Australian Board of Control's latest cable was concocted too hurriedly and looked like trying to force the M.G.C.'s hands. "The M.C.C.," ho says, "will naturally object to dictation. We can safely leave tho committee to find a way out of the trouble, after a talk with Jardino and Warner." Describing the trip, 'Hobbs says that vnever beforj had he heard such nasty and vind'jtive barracking as some members of the team had to endure.