Short description
Fast bowling and controversy have been inseparable since cricket began, but there has never been a more clamorous uproar than that which occurred during the 1932-33 Test series between Australia and England. This work tells the story of that scandal.
Long description
In 1932, England's cricket team, led by the haughty Douglas Jardine, had the fastest bowler in the world: Harold Larwood. Australia boasted the most prolific batsman the game had ever seen: the young Don Bradman. He had to be stopped. The leg-side bouncer onslaught inflicted by Larwood and Bill Voce, with a ring of fieldsmen waiting for catches, caused an outrage that reverberated to the back of the stands and into the highest levels of government. Bodyline, as this infamous technique came to be known, was repugnant to the majority of cricket-lovers. It was also potentially lethal - one bowl fracturing the skull of Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield - and the technique was outlawed in 1934. After the death of Don Bradman in 2001, one of the most controversial events in cricketing history - the Bodyline technique - finally slid out of living memory. Over seventy years on, the 1932-33 Ashes series remains the most notorious in the history of Test cricket between Australia and England. David Frith's gripping narrative has been acclaimed as the definitive book on the whole saga: superbly researched and replete with anecdotes, Bodyline Autopsy is a masterly anatomy of one of the most remarkable sporting scandals.
Review
'A brilliant book...it goes a long way to being the definitive tome on the subject. Outstandingly researched and extremely well written.' -- David Llewellyn Independent 'In David Frith's Bodyline Autopsy, we relive the crisis of 1932-33 that almost split the Empire...the well-sketched heroes and villains stand out in Frith's history; who says cricket is for gentlemen?' The Times 'Frith's account is packed with fascinating detail and anecdote. His description of the Test matches could hardly be more gripping.' -- Leo McKinstry Sunday Telegraph 20021124