Bodyline Hypocrisy: Conversations with Harold Larwood - Softcover

"An excellent read!" --The Scottish Cricketer

"The book gives a new spin on an old story and reminds us all that history can be manipulated to suit a particular agenda... You whinging Poms will bloody love it!" --DeepExtraCover.com

"Rather like the tactic itself, Arnold s book is relentless, effective, brutal... but, in the final reckoning, wins out. --99.94 Cricket Blog

"Very thoroughly researched and immensely readable, the book deserves to be widely read. This excellent study fills an important gap in the shelves of cricket history." --Rajesh Kumar, Cricket Statistician

"An intriguing read." --Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians

This fresh analysis of the England - Australia 'Bodyline Controversy' of 1932-33 uncovers hypocrisy on both sides of the furore, drawing on exclusive interviews with English 'villain of the piece' (and Australian emigre) Harold Larwood. At the time, Australia was a young, isolated country where sport was a religion, winning essential, and the media prone to distortion. In England, the MCC was pressurised by a British government fearing trade repercussions, leaving Harold Larwood and Douglas Jardine to be hung out to dry on a clothes-line of political expediency. The Bodyline Hypocrisy analyses the influence of Australian culture on events, and on exaggerations and distortions previously accepted as fact. It reveals that the MCC granted Honorary Membership to Larwood in 1949, influenced by its Australian president. And now even Ian Chappell has stated that Jardine's leg-theory tactic was simply playing Test cricket with whatever weapons were available. Times change and the truth emerges.