about Percy Chapman, saying that he would have shot him if a gun was available. Jardine did not appear in first-class cricket in the 1929 season due to business commitments. England captain Appointment as captain At the beginning of the 1930 season, Jardine was offered the vice-captaincy of Surrey. He was unable to accept owing to business commitments and played just nine matches for the season, scoring 402 runs at an average of 36.54 and managing one century and one fifty. He was never in the running for Test selection that season, although his presence may have been missed as the English batting was unreliable in the Tests. Christopher Douglas argues that had Jardine been playing regularly, he would have been made captain for the final Test, when Chapman was dropped in favour of the sounder batsman Bob Wyatt. The sensation of the Test series was Donald Bradman, who dominated the English bowling to score 974 runs with unprecedented speed and certainty, making the English selectors realise that something must be done to address his skill. With Bradman at the fore, Australia regained the Ashes 2–1. Jardine played a full season of cricket in 1931. In June, he was appointed as captain for the Test against New Zealand (two more Tests were later added). The English selectors were searching for possible captains for the 1932–33 tour of Australia, with Bradman and Australia's strong batting line up foremost in their minds. Christopher Douglas believes that, as Jardine was not a regular county captain, the selectors wanted to assess his leadership ability but had probably not settled on him as a final choice. He was also chosen as a dependable, proven batsman. While Percy Fender approved of his appointment, The Times''' correspondent believed that he was unproven and others were more deserving of the leadership. Ian Peebles, writing 40 years later, claimed that Jardine's appointment was popular but cricket administrators had misgivings. Alan Gibson believed that Jardine was chosen because the other candidates were either not worth their place in the side, too old or had controversy attached to them. Furthermore, Jardine impressed the chairman of selectors, Pelham Warner, who stated that he was very effective in selection meetings through his knowledge of cricket history and went into great detail to choose the correct players; it seems that Warner was the driving force behind Jardine's appointment. In his first Test as captain,