A twist in the Bodyline tale

Writing in the Guardian, Mike Selvey lets us in on an unexpected discovery from Warwickshire allrounder Bob Wyatt's autobiography - that Douglas Jardine was not the first person to use the controversial leg theory.

Far from being an innovative idea, the principle of bodyline, although not called that of course, had been around and exploited for at least four years previously, and maybe before that. Wyatt himself, and others, were actually on the receiving end of it. Wyatt was to be Jardine's vice-captain in Australia, and although he is generally thought of as being opposed to the use of bodyline, it doesn't quite marry with his own account, which says: "I think Jardine was fully justified in using him [Larwood] as he did."

The caveat was that it only worked because of Larwood's unique combination of extreme pace and accuracy. "The ill-feeling it caused was not good for cricket," Wyatt adds.