Bodyline, also known as Fast Leg Theory, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. Bodyline bowlers deliberately aimed the cricket ball at the bodies of batsmen, in the hope of creating legside deflections that could be caught by one of several fielders located in the quadrant of the field behind square leg.

This tactic caused several injuries to Australian players and led to ill feeling between the two national teams. The controversy eventually spilled into the diplomatic arena. Over the next two decades, several laws of cricket were changed to prevent this kind of tactic being used again.

The Australian cricket team toured England in 1930. Australia won the five-Test series 2-1, with Don Bradman scoring an astounding 974 runs at a batting average of 139.14, an aggregate record that stands to this day.

After the series, Douglas Jardine – who was later appointed England's captain for the 1932–33 English tour of Australia – devised a plan with Nottinghamshire captain Arthur Carr and his two fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to combat Bradman's extraordinary skills. At a meeting in London's Piccadilly Hotel, the Oxford educated Jardine asked Larwood and Voce if they could bowl on leg stump and make the ball come up into the body of the batsman. The bowlers agreed they could, and that it might prove effective.

Accompanying this bowling line would be a cordon of close fielders set on the leg side. The result was that the batsman had to choose to either take evasive action from balls aimed at his body and head, or attempt to fend the ball away with the bat, possibly giving catching chances to the close-set leg side field.

Larwood and Voce practiced the plan over the next two seasons of English county cricket, terrorising their opponents as Nottinghamshire finished near the top of the competition each year. By the time the English team left for Australia in October 1932, Larwood and Voce, along with Bill Bowes from Yorkshire, had perfected their attack.

The English players first tried their tactic in a first-class tour match against an Australian XI in Perth, a game in which Jardine rested and gave the captaincy duties to his deputy Bob Wyatt. Seeing the bruising balls hit the Australian batsmen on several occasions in this game and the next angered the spectators.

The English players and management were consistent in referring to their tactic as fast leg theory because they considered it to be a variant of the established — and relatively harmless — leg theory tactic. The Australian press came up with the far more evocative and inflammatory term, Bodyline. The reporting of the series in England described the tactic as fast leg theory, which caused serious misunderstandings, as neither the English public nor the Board of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) — the governing body of English cricket — could understand why the Australians were complaining about a commonly used tactic and came to the conclusion that the Australian cricket authorities and public were sore losers and "squealers".

In the Test matches, Bradman countered Bodyline by moving toward the leg side, away from the line of the ball, and cutting it into the vacant off side field. Whilst this was dubious in terms of batting technique, it seemed the best way to cope with the barrage, and Bradman averaged a creditable 56.57 in the series (compared to his career average of 99.94), while being struck above the waist by the ball only once. His team-mates fared worse, performing poorly and taking many hits on the body.

Whilst moderately successful as a tactic (England regained The Ashes with a 4-1 margin), the Australian crowds abhorred Bodyline as vicious and unsporting. Matters came to a head in the third Test at Adelaide, when Larwood struck Australian captain Bill Woodfull above the heart and fractured wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield's skull (although this was from a top edge). Tension and feelings ran so high that a riot was narrowly averted as police stationed themselves between the players and enraged spectators. However, at the time England were not using the Bodyline tactics. Woodfull was struck when he was bent over his bat and wicket – and not when upright as often imagined. The crowd was incensed, and popular imagination blurred, when Jardine ordered his team to move to Bodyline positions immediately after Woodfull's injury.

In a famous quotation, Bill Woodfull said to the England tour manager Pelham Warner, when the latter came to express his sympathy for Woodfull's injury: "I don't want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not."

At the end of the fourth day's play the Australian Board of Control for Cricket sent the following cable to the MCC in London:

Bodyline bowling assumed such proportions as to menace best interests of game, making protection of body by batsmen the main consideration. Causing intensely bitter feeling between players as well as injury. In our opinion is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once likely to upset friendly relations existing between Australia and England.

This escalated into a diplomatic incident between the countries as the MCC — supported by the British public and still under the impression that their fast leg theory tactic was harmless — took serious offence at being branded "unsportsmanlike" and demanded a retraction. With World War I still fresh in people's memories and the first rumblings of World War II beginning, many people saw Bodyline as fracturing an international relationship that needed to remain strong.

Jardine, and by extension the entire English team, threatened to withdraw from the fourth and fifth Tests unless the Australian Board withdrew the accusation of unsporting behaviour. Public reaction in both England and Australia was outrage directed at the other nation. The Governer of South Australia, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, who was in England at the time, expressed his concern to British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs James Henry Thomas that this would cause a significant impact on trade between the nations.

The standoff was settled only when Australian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons met with members of the Australian Board and outlined to them the severe economic hardships that could be caused in Australia if the British public boycotted Australian trade. Given this understanding, the Board withdrew the allegation of unsportsmanlike behaviour two days before the fourth Test, thus saving the tour.

The English team continued to bowl Bodyline in the remaining two Tests, but slower pitches meant the Australians, although frequently bruised, sustained no further serious injuries.

Bodyline continued to be bowled occasionally in the 1933 English season — most notably by Nottinghamshitre, who had Carr, Voce and Larwood in their team. This gave the English crowds their first chance to see what all the fuss was about. Farnes, the Cambridge University fast bowler also bowled it in the university match, hitting a few Oxford batsmen.

What's often forgotten, however, is that Jardine himself had to face bodyline bowling in a Test match. The West Indian cricket team toured England in 1933, and, in the second Test at Old Trafford, Jackie Grant, their captain, decided to try bodyline using fast bowlers, Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine. Facing bodyline tactics for the first time, England first suffered, falling to 134 for 4, with Wally Hammond being hit on the chin, though he recovered to continue his innings. Then Jardine himself faced Martindale and Constantine. Jardine never flinched. He played right back to the bouncers, standing on tiptoe, and, no doubt partly because he didn't care for the hook shot, played them with a dead bat. Whilst the Old Trafford pitch was not as suited to bodyline as the hard Australian wickets, Martindale did take 5 for 73, but Constantine only took 1 for 55. Jardine himself made 127, his only Test century.

In the second West Indian innings, Clark bowled bodyline back to the West Indians, taking 2 for 64. The match in the end was drawn; it was also the highest-profile game in which bodyline was bowled in England.

In 1932, Sydney journalist Hugh Buggy who worked for The Sun, and who happened to be a colleague of Jack Fingleton, sent a telegram to his newspaper from the Test after a day's play. As a substitute for "in the line of the body" he used the term "bodyline", to keep the cost down.

As a direct consequence of the 1932–33 tour, the MCC introduced a new rule to the laws of cricket in 1934. Specifically, umpires were now given the power — and the responsibility — to intervene if they considered a bowler was deliberately aiming at a batsman with intent to injure.

Some 25 years later, another rule was introduced banning the placement of more than two fielders in the quadrant of the field behind square leg. Although this rule was not principally intended to prevent leg theory, it diluted the potency of short-pitched leg theory, as it allowed for fewer catching positions on the leg side.

Later law changes, under the heading of "Intimidatory Short Pitched Bowling", also restricted the number of "bouncers" which may be bowled in an over. Nevertheless, the tactic of intimidating the batsman is still used to an extent that would have been shocking in 1933, although it is less dangerous now because today's players wear helmets and generally far more protective gear. The West Indies teams of the 1980s, which regularly fielded a bowling attack comprising some of the best fast bowlers in cricket history, were perhaps the most feared exponents.

Following the 1932–33 series, several authors – including many of the players involved – released books expressing various points of view about Bodyline. Many argued that it was a scourge on cricket and must be stamped out, while some did not see what all the fuss was about.

The MCC asked Harold Larwood to sign an apology to them for his bowling in Australia, making his selection for England again conditional upon it. Larwood was furious at the notion, pointing out that he had been following orders from his upper-class captain, and that was where any blame should lie. Larwood never played for England again, and became vilified in his own country. In retrospect, this event is seen by many as the first step in breaking down the class distinction in English cricket.

Outside the sport, there were significant consequences for Anglo-Australian relations, which remained strained, until the outbreak of World War II made cooperation paramount. Business between the two countries was adversely affected as citizens of each country displayed a preference for not buying goods manufactured in the other. Australian commerce also suffered in British colonies in Asia: the North China Daily News published a pro-Bodyline editorial, denouncing Australians as sore losers. An Australian journalist reported that several business deals in Hong Kong and Shanghai were lost by Australians because of local reactions.

English immigrants in Australia found themselves shunned and persecuted by locals, and Australian visitors to England were treated similarly. Some years later a statue of Prince Albert in Sydney was vandalised, with an ear being knocked off and the word "BODYLINE" painted on it.

Both before and after World War II, numerous satirical cartoons and comedy skits were written, mostly in Australia, based on events of the Bodyline tour. Generally, they poked fun at the English.

In 1984, Australia's Network Ten produced a television miniseries titled Bodyline: It's Just Not Cricket, dramatising the events of the 1932–33 English tour of Australia. It starred Gary Sweet as Don Bradman and Hugo Weaving as Douglas Jardine. The series took some liberties with historical accuracy for the sake of drama, including a depiction of angry Australian fans burning an English flag at the Adelaide Test, an event which was never documented. Larwood, having emigrated to Australia in 1950 to escape ongoing vilification in England, received several threatening and obscene phone calls after the series aired.

To this day the Bodyline tour remains one of the most significant events in the history of cricket and is strong in the consciousness of many cricket followers. In a poll of cricket journalists, commentators, and players in 2004, the Bodyline tour was ranked the most important event in cricket history. 

The year that was 1933...

• On 30 January, after the Nazi party wins German elections, Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor • On 27 February, fire destroys the Reichstag (parliament) in Berlin. The Nazis blame it on a Communist plot and use it as a pretext for suspending civil liberties and freedom of the press • On 12 August in Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, a soldier, leads a successful coup and becomes national leader • On 14 October, Germany leaves the League of Nations • On 5 December, the US government repeals Prohibition through the ratification of the 21st amendment to the Constitution • In Madrid, Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca stages his symbolic play about rural passions, Boda de sangre (Blood Wedding) • The film King Kong, starring Fay Wray, raises special effects to new heights •

Sporting 1933...

• Football League Champions were Arsenal, the Gooners leaving Aston Villa in the runners up spot • Everton defeated Manchester City 3-0 in the FA Cup Final, Toffees legend Dixie Dean hitting the second goal • The Grand National winning horse was ‘Kellsboro’ • The Cheltenham Gold Cup winning horse was ‘Golden Miller’ • The Epsom Derby winning horse was ‘Hyperion’ • Golf's British Open was won by Denny Shute • Cambridge won the Boat Race by two ¼ lengths over Oxford • Snooker’s World Championship Final ended Joe Davis (England) 25-18 Willie Smith (England) • The Wimbledon tennis singles tournament saw victories for Jack Crawford of Australia (mens) and Helen Wills Moody of USA (ladies) • American Sport – The first Super Bowl did not take place until 1967 – The first NBA Championship did not take place until 1947 – Major League Baseball World Series: New York Giants 4-1 Washington •