|
| |
Australian
|
| |
Australia
|
| |
AUS
|
| |
Sir Donald Bradman
|
| |
Bradmanjpg
|
| |
Right-handed batsman (RHB)
|
| |
Occasional right arm Leg Spin
|
| |
52
|
| |
6996
|
| |
9994
|
| |
29/13
|
| |
334
|
| |
160
|
| |
2
|
| |
3600
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
1/8
|
| |
32c
|
| |
234
|
| |
28067
|
| |
9514
|
| |
117/69
|
| |
452
|
| |
2114
|
| |
36
|
| |
3797
|
| |
0
|
| |
0
|
| |
3/35
|
| |
131c 1s
|
| |
30 November
|
| |
1928
|
| |
14 August
|
| |
1948
|
,
AC (born
August 27 ,
1908 in
Cootamundra, New South Wales , died
February 25 ,
2001 in
Adelaide ), often called '''Don Bradman''' or '''The Don''', was an
Australia n
Cricket er who is universally regarded as the greatest
Batsman of all time, and is one of Australia's most popular sporting heroes. Among those who have a meaningful
Test Match Batting Average through batting in more than 20
Innings , his figure of 99.94 is over 63% higher than that achieved by any other cricketer. Next among those who have batted in more than 20 innings is South African
Graeme Pollock with an average of 60.97.
Born in Cootamundra, New South Wales, but raised in
Bowral (where the Bradman Museum and Bradman Oval are located), Bradman practiced obsessively during his youth. At home he invented his own one-man cricket game using a stump and a golf ball. A water tank stood on a brick stand behind the Bradman home on a covered and paved area. When hit into the curved brick stand, the ball would rebound at high speed and varying angles. This form of practice helped him to develop split-second speed and accuracy.
After a brief dalliance with tennis he dedicated himself to cricket, playing for local sides before attracting sufficient attention to be drafted into grade cricket in
Sydney at the age of 18. Within a year he was selected for
New South Wales , and within three years he made his Test debut.
After receiving some criticism in his first
Ashes Series in 1928–1929 he worked to remove perceived weaknesses in his game, and by the time of the
Bodyline series he was without peer as a
Batsman . Possessing a great stillness whilst awaiting the delivery, his shot making was based on a combination of excellent vision, speed of both thought and footwork and a decisive, powerful bat motion with a pronounced follow-through. Technically his play was almost flawless, strong on both sides of the wicket with only his sternest critics noting a tendency for his backlift to be slightly angled toward the slip cordon.
In the English summer of 1930 he scored 974 runs over the course of the five Ashes tests, the highest individual total in any test series. Bradman himself rated his 254 in the second Test at Lord's as his best ever innings. His 334 in the third Test at Headingley, of which he scored a test record 309 runs on one day, was then the highest individual score in Test cricket (surpassed by
Walter Hammond in 1933 but not equalled by an Australian batsman until
Mark Taylor declared with his score at 334 not out in 1998, in what many regard as a deliberate tribute to Bradman).
Bradman so dominated the game that special
Bowling tactics, known as ''fast leg theory'' or ''
Bodyline '', regarded by many as unsporting and dangerous, were devised by England captain
Douglas Jardine to reduce his dominance in a series of international matches against
England in the Australian summer of 1932–1933. The principal English exponent of Bodyline was the Nottinghamshire pace bowler
Harold Larwood , and the contest between Bradman and Larwood was to prove to be the focal point of the competition. Some indication of his superlative skill was that his average for that series, 56.57, is still higher than the career averages of all but a handful of international Test cricketers.
Further evidence of his supreme athletic skills was revealed when Bradman missed the 1935–36 tour to South Africa due to illness. During his absence from cricket, Bradman took up
Squash to keep himself fit. He subsequently won the South Australian Open Squash Championship.
Despite occasional battles with illness, he dominated world cricket throughout the 1930s, and is credited with raising the spirit of a nation suffering under the privations of the
Great Depression .
Approaching forty years of age (most players today are retired by their late-thirties), he returned to play cricket after
World War II , leading one of the most talented teams in Australia's history. In his farewell 1948 tour of England the team he led, dubbed "
The Invincibles ", went undefeated throughout the tour, a feat unmatched before or since.
On the occasion of his last international innings, Bradman needed four runs to be able to retire with a batting average of 100, but was dismissed for nought (in cricketing parlance, "a
Duck ") by spin bowler
Eric Hollies . Applauded onto the pitch by both teams, it was sometimes claimed that he was unable to see the ball due to the tears welling in his eyes, a claim Bradman always dismissed as sentimental nonsense. "I knew it would be my last Test match after a career spanning twenty years", he said, "but to suggest I got out as some people did, because I had tears in my eyes, is to belittle the bowler and is quite untrue." Regardless, he was given a guard of honour by players and spectators alike as he left the ground with a batting average of 99.94 from his 52 Tests.
Over an international career spanning 20 years from 1928 to 1948, Bradman's batting achievements are unparalleled. His career statistics are far superior to those of any other batsman, and a testament to his unusual powers of concentration. He broke scoring records for both
First-class and
Test Cricket .
Bradman scored centuries at a rate of better than one every three innings. He converted very nearly a third of his centuries into double hundreds, and his total of 37 first-class double hundreds is the most achieved by any batsman. The next highest total is Walter Hammond's, who scored 36 double hundreds but played in exactly 400 more matches.
For decades, Bradman was the only player to have scored two Test triple centuries (both against England at Headingley, 334 in 1930 and 304 in 1934). This feat was equalled by
West Indian Brian Lara in 2004 (Lara has, however, played more than twice as many Tests). Bradman very nearly reached 300 on another occasion, his last partner being run out when he was on 299 not out against South Africa in 1932. Bradman, Lara and
Bill Ponsford are the only players with three first class scores of over 350.
In a biographical essay in Wisden, he is hailed as "the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games"
1.
Bradman married his childhood sweetheart Jessie, and had three children, Ross, John and Shirley. Sadly Ross died only 36 hours after birth. Sir Don, an intensely private person, probably because of the intense media scrutiny he suffered, was regarded as aloof even by team-mates, particularly in later years. A strict adherent to the Church of England, he had occasionally been accused of anti-Catholicism in his actions as captain and selector, but this was against a background of widespread sectarian prejudice in Australia.
He spoke out against smoking in sport, which was very unusual for the time. His books on cricket technique and tactics are regarded as classics.
. His innings of 270 won the match for Australia.]]
After retiring from playing cricket, Bradman continued working as a stockbroker. Allegations that he had acted improperly during the collapse of his employer's firm and the subsequent establishment of his own, made behind closed doors until his death, were publicised in November 2001. He became heavily involved in cricket administration, serving as a selector for the national team for nearly 30 years. He was selector (and acknowledged as a force urging the players of both teams to play entertaining, attacking cricket) for the famous Australia - West Indies Test series of 1960–61.
As a member of the
Australian Cricket Board , and, reportedly, their ''de facto'' leader, he was also involved in negotiations with the
World Series Cricket schism in the late 1970s.
Ian Chappell , former Test captain and selected to lead the rebel Australian side, has stated that he places much responsibility for the split on Bradman, who in his opinion had forgotten his own difficulties with the cricket authorities of the time.
He was also famous for answering innumerable letters from cricket fans across the world, which he continued to do until well into his eighties.
An often repeated
Urban Legend is that General Manager of the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation and personal friend Sir
Charles Moses asked that Bradman's batting average be immortalised as the post office box number of the broadcaster - "Box 9994 in your capital city". There is however, no evidence that this is a true story.
Bradman was selected as one of the five ''
Wisden ''
Cricketers Of The Year in 1931. He was awarded a knighthood in 1949, and a
Companion Of The Order Of Australia (Australia's highest civil honour) in 1979. In 1996, he was inducted into the
Australian Cricket Hall Of Fame as one of the ten inaugural members.
In 2000, Bradman was selected by a distinguished panel of experts as one of five ''
Wisden Cricketers Of The Century ''. Each member of the panel selected five cricketers, and Bradman was the only player to be named by all 100 correspondents. The other four cricketers selected for the honour were Sir
Garfield Sobers (90 votes), Sir
Jack Hobbs (30 votes),
Shane Warne (27 votes) and Sir
Vivian Richards (25 votes). Some members of the panel commented that two of the five votes cast would be effectively wasted, as they had to be cast for Bradman and Sobers
2.
Bradman is immortalised in two popular songs of very different styles and eras, "Our Don Bradman", a jaunty 1930s ditty by Jack O'Hagan, and
Bradman by
Paul Kelly in the 1980s.
The story of the Bodyline series was embroidered in a 1984 television drama mini-series where
Hugo Weaving played Douglas Jardine and
Gary Sweet played Sir Donald Bradman.
The name "Bradman" is now protected in Australia, in that it cannot be used as a part of a trademark except for government-approved institutions linked to Donald Bradman.
A main arterial road in
Adelaide ,
South Australia , formerly Burbridge Road, was renamed Sir Donald Bradman Drive.
