The 3 most contentious Ashes moments ever

The Ashes Urn

We’re just one Test into the Ashes, and the turbulent, exciting tie was already typical of a series between England and Australia.
You won’t need a telling that it was littered with contentious cricketing calls – from Stuart Broad neglecting to walk and Ashton Agar surviving a stone-cold stumping to Hot-Spot becoming unavailable in a situation of need.

But in the grand lexicon of Ashes controversy, those incidents are not alone. Here are the three most controversial cricketing calls and dubious decisions in the history of the Ashes:

Bodyline

It’s easy to underestimate the importance of bodyline. It provoked what Wisden called “probably the most unpleasant Test ever played”. It led to Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield being knocked unconscious. It nearly provoked riots. It caused commerce between England and Australia to fall significantly. It took a world war to put the two Allies back on good diplomatic terms.

To modern cricket fans looking back, bodyline will seem a bit of an over-exaggeration, of precious Aussies getting in a bit of a tizzy – after all, isn’t it merely Englishmen bowling bouncers? But back then it changed cricket permanently from a gentleman’s game governed by ancient unspoken rules into something slightly harder, with ‘intimidatory short-pitched bowling’ rules later restricting the amount of bouncers allowed in each over.

Even though the militant tactics were the idea of England captain Douglas Jardine, fast bowler Harold Larwood, the chief proponent of bodyline, was blamed for the debacle and never played for his country again. Still, the tactics worked – legendary Don Bradman’s batting average was reduced to a comparatively minuscule 56 and England won the series 4-1.