Bodyline’s back as talk turns to ditching Queen

AUSTRALIAN DEPUTY Prime Minister Wayne Swan used the 80th anniversary of the so-called Bodyline cricket series against England to call for renewed debate on his nation’s allegiance to the British monarch.

‘‘The events on the cricket field during the summer of 1932- 33, coinciding as they did with the events of the Great Depression, helped awaken a democratic and egalitarian assertion of Australian national sovereignty,’’ Swan wrote in an article published in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper. ‘‘Reflecting on those events will eventually have another legacy, too, in hastening the approach of an Australian republic.’’

A referendum to create an Australian head of state and break the nation’s ties to the British crown failed in 1999 amid divisions over how a president would be selected and affinity for the reigning queen. While the ruling Labor Party supports a move to a republic, it maintains the issue is not a priority and is unlikely to be addressed while 86- year- old Queen Elizabeth II remains on the throne.

Swan, the nation’s treasurer, said he wrote the article in part ‘‘to re- energise a discussion’’ about Australia becoming a republic.

‘‘I, as a lifelong republican, don’t believe in inherited privileges,’’ he said Friday on Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio in Brisbane. ‘‘We had a very significant debate in the 90s. I want to see a very respectful conversation about a future Australian republic in the years ahead. But I don’t think it’s something that’s going to happen any time soon.’’

Bodyline refers to tactics employed by the English cricket team – bowling fast, accurate balls at a batsman in the days before helmets – to intimidate and restrict the Australians, specifically targeting star player Don Bradman.

Anger erupted in Adelaide in January 1933 when one Australian batsman was hit in the torso and another in the head, fracturing his skull, the Cricinfo website said.

‘‘At its core, Bodyline amounted to a calculated attempt from the English cricketing establishment to attack the Australian cricket team,’’ Swan wrote.

‘‘As esteemed cricket historians Ric Sissons and Brian Stoddart concluded in their chronicle Cricket and Empire, from a British perspective Bodyline was principally about teaching Australia ‘a lesson in imperial superiority’.’’

The sport’s oldest international rivalry resumes this year with series in both countries.