LARWOOD SPEAKS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20342, 27 June 1934, Page 1

LARWOOD SPEAKS.

Says That M.C.C. “ Let Him Down Badly.” TEST INTRIGUE ALLEGED. A cablegram from London on June 17 said that the cricket controversy over bodyline had again assumed disturbing proportions as the result of the publication of a sensational article by Harold Larwood alleging intrigue in Test cricket. Below are given extracts from the article as cabled to Australian papers. Marylebone (wrote Larwood in the “ Sunday Dispatch ”) has surrendered to political and other interests, which are determined at all costs to placate Australia, and conveniently forget how we won the last series of Tests. After stating that cricket is not a nursery game, Larwood adds: Cricket is not a nursery

game. Old-timers took more knocks than the majority of moderns who play on wickets of glass. We are breeding a race of nambv - pambv cricketers, afraid of their own shadows. My future in county cricket is indefinite, but I am afraid my days have ended as a

Test player. For one thing I am burning my boats in telling the public what I believe to be the truth. People in high places at Lord’s and elsewhere probably will wash their hands of me. Do I care? Well, I am a little disappointed. I always tried to play the game in every sense of the word. Unfitness An Excuse. The selectors, before the Trent Bridge Test, asked me whether I were: fit. I was determined not to play, but in order to make their position easy, I answered that I was unfit. Then I went off and skittled Sussex (Larwood took five wickets for 66 runs). . If I had said I was fit, and wanted to play, would they have played me ? I have heard I was not to be played in the first Test in any case. If England could win without me I would not be played at all, which would placate the people who feared that cricket was going to burst up the Empire; but England did not win. I have been badly let down by those in authority. Why don’t they come out into the open and ban leg theory? Sir Stanley Jackson (a selector) is reported to have said that if I were asked to play it would be unconditionally. This is a mere quibble. Sir Stanley Jackson carefully added that all players would be under the captain’s instructions. In my whole career I have not heard before of a Test captain dictating to a bowler that he must bowl only a certain way. That was only a ruse to prevent me from bowling leg theory; but in view of the newspaper and public outcrv I am to be invited to play. “I Would Bowl L eg Theory.” I will now reveal that from the first I had no intention of playing against an Australian captain who regards me as unfair. If I did intend to play I should certainly bowl leg theory. If the captain interfered with the disposition of the field I would refuse to bowl, and would walk from the wicket. It is perhaps well that did not happen. Marylebone is willing to wound, but is afraid to strike. It never admitted that my bowling was directed against the batsman’s body. It has not discovered anything in the rules to prevent it. It had not the courage to alter the rules. If I were right in Australia I must be right now. If Marylebone admits we won the last series of Tests under false pretences, well and good, but does it? No! In the usual shilly-shally manner it tries to be for and against leg theory simultaneously. Conspirators are spreading poison everywhere. Leg-theory is going to be killed if some people have their way, and they will hound me from the game by exerting pressure inspired by influential leaders upon Notts through a threat to cancel fixtures. The climax came recently when, I believe, Carr was informed that the position was serious and that leg-theory would have to cease. Yorkshire are reported to be against Notts methods. I cannot help smiling at the threat, as they have a bowler whose short bumpers are infinitely more dangerous to life and limb than anything I send down. (Presumably Larwood lefers to Bowes). Soon we poor bowlers will have to use a tennis ball or bowl lobs. Carr Upset. Naturally, this bombshell has upset Carr terribly. Even now he may have to resign as other captains are questioning his spcrtsmanship in breaking a gentleman’s agreement not to use “ bodyline ” in county cricket (the county captains’ agreement). Carr is always behind me on leg-theory and he knows I do not deliberately aim at the body.

Voce, as a left-hander, requires fieldsmen on the leg side, yet squealers also want that stopped. There is wide determination to stop leg-theor}'. It is alleged my pace is dangerous, especially to slow-footed batsmen. Now the cat is completely out of the bag. All those unable to time my bowling are combining to stop it by hcok or by crook. If a batsman is so slow-footed that he is always being hit, it is time he retired from international cricket. The success of Fames at Trent Bridge showed that the Australians are not used to speed, whether leg-theory or otherwise. I am still ]oya] to Notts. Moreover, I must earn a living, so I shall drop leg-theory in county matches, but that does not make me less bitter against the mandarins in high places who have made it their business to eliminate a perfectly fair method of bowling.