Douglas Jardine
Template:Infobox Historic Cricketer Douglas Robert Jardine (23 October 1900, Bombay - 18 June 1958, Montreux) was a British cricketer and captain of the controversial 1932-33 Bodyline tour of Australia. He captained the England side from 1931 to 1933-34.
Jardine was born in India of Scottish descent. His parents were Malcolm Robert Jardine, who himself played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Middlesex, and Alison Moir. Douglas Jardine was educated at Horris Hill School, Newbury, Berkshire, Winchester College and Oxford University, and habitually wore the Oxford University Harlequin cap on the cricket field, which some saw as a symbol of pretension. He made his Test debut for England against the West Indies at Lord's in 1928. A skilled right-handed batsman, he was arguably England's best amateur batsman of his time - an age when cricketers were still divided between upper class amateurs and working class professionals.
He toured Australia with the English team in 1928-29. He played in all five Test matches, scoring 341 runs at the commendable average of 42.63. His skills displayed throughout the year led Wisden to name Jardine a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1928.
During the tour of Australia, for some reason Jardine appeared to develop an intense dislike for the country and its people. Australians claim that this was provoked by his own pretentious behaviour, as cricket fans took exception to his exclusive Harlequin cap and somewhat haughty attitude. It is recorded that during one tour match Australian player Hunter Hendry expressed his sympathies to Jardine for the jeers the crowd was giving him, and Jardine responded, "All Australians are uneducated, and an unruly mob."
Later, at the second Test in Sydney where the crowd was again hurling abuse at Jardine, fellow English cricketer Patsy Hendren observed that "They don't seem to like you very much over here, Mr Jardine." Jardine replied, "It's fucking mutual."
Jardine did not play in the 1930 English Test series against the touring Australian team because he preferred to attend to business appointments that summer. Nevertheless, he took a great interest in the extraordinary batting skills of Australia's Don Bradman, who finished the tour with a record (unbeaten to this day) aggregate of 974 Test runs at an average of 139.14.
Following this tour, Jardine held a meeting with Nottinghamshire captain Arthur Carr and his two fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce. Together they devised a plan of attack aimed at countering Bradman's skills. This became known in the press as Bodyline. Jardine never referred to this kind of short-pitched bowling as "bodyline", preferring to call it "Fast Leg Theory".
Jardine was appointed captain of the English touring team to Australia in 1932-33, and used the Bodyline tactics ruthlessly and effectively against his opposition. He also appreciated the benefit of psychologically boosting his own players; on the boat trip out to Australia he encouraged his team to foster a hatred for the Australian players, and to refer to Don Bradman exclusively as "the little bastard".
In Australia, Larwood and Voce repeatedly hit Australian batsmen with fast balls, causing outrage amongst Australian fans. In the third Test at Adelaide, Larwood struck Australian captain Bill Woodfull over the heart, resulting in serious injury. Jardine's reaction was to call audibly to Larwood, "Well bowled, Harold!" Later in the same game, Australian wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield was struck on the head by another Larwood delivery, which fractured his skull (although Oldfield admitted that this was his fault as the injury was caused by the ball deflecting off the bat into his head).
Despite the uproar by the Australian public and the Australian Board of Control for Cricket, Jardine insisted his tactic was not designed to cause injury and that he was leading his team in a sportsmanlike and gentlemanly manner, arguing that it was up to the Australian batsmen to play their way out of trouble. It seems he did genuinely regret the injuries suffered by his opponents, as he secretly sent a telegram of sympathy to Bert Oldfield's wife and arranged for presents to be given to his young daughters.
But his popularity with the general Australian public never recovered. In a famous incident recorded by the press, Jardine was on the field and trying to brush a persistent fly away from his face when a spectator yelled across the ground, "Leave our flies alone, Jardine! They're the only flamin' friends you've got here!"
Strongly-worded cables passed between the Australian Board of Control, who asserted that Bodyline bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game, making protection of the body the main consideration, and the MCC. The Australians threatened to call off the projected tour of England in 1934. MCC at length agreed that a form of bowling which is obviously a direct attack by the bowler upon the batsman would be an offence against the spirit of the game. Jardine always defended his tactics and in a book he wrote about the tour described allegations that the England bowlers directed their attack with the intention of causing physical harm as stupid and patently untruthful.
However, Jardine and his team returned to England as heroes, having convincingly won back The Ashes 4-1. He was invited by the MCC to captain England again for the Tests against India before deciding that he had no wish to captain England again and resigned before the 1934 Ashes tour. In effect, he retired from first class cricket in 1934 aged 33.
Finally in 1934 MCC issued a ruling: That the type of bowling regarded as a direct attack by the bowler upon the batsman, and therefore unfair, consists in persistent and systematic bowling of fast and short-pitched balls at the batsman standing clear of his wicket. That was the end of body-line bowling.
Jardine married in 1934, Irene Margaret Peat (1914-1998) daughter of Sir Harry Peat. They had 4 children, Fianach, Marion, Iona & Euan.
During the war, he was commissioned into the Royal Berkshire Regiment, serving with distinction in both France and India.
Jardine died from lung cancer aged 57, in Montreux, Switzerland. His ashes were returned to Scotland to be scattered at Loch Rannoch.
To the present day, Jardine is remembered throughout much of the cricket world as the architect of what some, particularly in Australia, consider the most vicious premeditated behaviour seen on a cricket field; but the fact remains that these tactics were certainly within the rules of the game at the time and, furthermore, the tactic of intimidating batsmen with bouncers (without a supporting Bodyline field) later became commonplace (with Australian cricket team itself mastering and employing it to perfection today). His reputation remains particularly low in Australia, where respected cricket commentator Alan McGilvray once described Jardine as "the most notorious Englishman since Jack the Ripper". However in England his reputation is as a ruthless, highly determined player and perhaps the first amateur captain with a fully professional attitude. Indeed, Sir Pelham Warner commented "If ever there was a cricket match between England and the rest of the world, and the fate of England depended upon the result, I would pick Jardine as England Captain every time".
Jardine is also remembered as the originator of what many consider one of the most eloquent descriptions of the sport of cricket:
- Cricket is battle and service and sport and art.
Jardine played in 22 Test matches for England, scoring 1,296 runs at an average of 48.00. In his first-class cricket career, he played 262 matches, scoring 14,848 runs at an average of 46.83. He also bowled leg spin at first-class level, taking 48 wickets at an average of 31.10. A stand is named in his honour at Surrey's home ground, The Oval, London, England.