England toured Australia in the summer of 1932/33 to play five Test matches. The tourists won back the Ashes convincingly by four games to one in one of the most acromonious series of all time.

The tour was highly controversial because of the Bodyline bowling tactics used by the English captain Douglas Jardine. The plan hatched in England with the help of Percy Fender and Arthur Carr, was to specifically limit the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman. In the prior 1930 series, Bradman had plundered a record 974 runs off their attack but had shown some tendency to flinch at the fast rising delivery. When Jardine instructed his two fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to bowl Bodyline, it had the effect of lowering Bradman's extraordinary batting to an average of 53 during the series. Gubby Allen, an amateur fast bowler, refused to bowl Bodyline.

Australian skipper Bill Woodfull's physical courage and dignified leadership won him many admirers. He did not employ retaliatory tactics. When the English team manager and former captain Plum Warner visited the Australian dressing room to express his sympathies during the 3rd Test in Adelaide, Woodfull's famous response meant to be private, but leaked to the press was "I don't want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there, one is playing cricket. The other is making no attempt to do so".

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