Bill Woodfull, Australia’s gentlemanly captain, was twice struck by bumpers and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield edged a ferocious delivery from Larwood on to his temple, collapsed beside the pitch and was carried from the field unconscious.

It produced one of the immortal quotes in Test cricket when Woodfull told the English management: “There are two teams out there, and only one of them is playing cricket.”

Behind the scenes there were frantic political negotiations to save the tour and restore frayed diplomatic relations between Britain and Australia.

The British coalition government’s Dominion Secretary JH Thomas later described Bodyline as the most troublesome affair of his ministerial career.

England’s emphatic 4-1 series victory brought both opprobrium and praise for Jardine.

Bodyline curbed Bradman’s batting average to 56.57. He scored just one century in his four Tests with a series aggregate of 396 runs. Without the Bodyline series, Bradman would have finished his career with a Test average of 104.76 instead of 99.94.Larwood, the former Nottinghamshire coalminer, claimed a series-high 33 wickets at 19.51, but events of the series soured him. The 28-year-old paceman never played for England again.

Larwood later migrated to Australia with his wife Lois, and his five daughters and lived in Sydney until his death in 1995, at the age of 90.

Jack Fingleton, who played in three of the Bodyline Tests, echoed the feelings of others in the Australian team when he later wrote: “I do not think there was one single batsman who played in most of those Bodyline games who ever afterwards recaptured his love for cricket.”

... contd.