DON BRADMAN

The name Don Bradman conjures up a sense of pride to be an Australian. However, what exactly did Bradman do that was so special? Why is he so loved by not only the people that got to see him play, but also the young kids of today who would have only heard about Bradman through past generations? Surely, he must have done something else besides play cricket, which he hasn’t done for more than 50 years.

We all know of his remarkable average of 99.94 runs in test cricket. This is almost double the average of his nearest counterpart. When asked why he was better than everybody else, Bradman simply answered “I don’t know”. Many experts over the years have tried to dissect every aspect of Bradman’s game. They have studied the way he gripped the bat, hit the ball and his remarkable concentration and patience whilst batting.
There have been many books written on Bradman trying to analyse all aspects of his game. In fact, he himself wrote the classic 1950 “How to Play Cricket”. After all the analysing that the experts have conducted to work out why Bradman was so extraordinary, they still can’t reach a conclusion, and probably never will. Why did the name Sir Donald Bradman become bigger than cricket itself? As they say “It’s what legends are made of.” Bradman was more than a legend. To most cricket lovers in Australia and around the world, he was a god. To the average person on the street he was an icon. You don’t even have to know anything about cricket, but I’m sure you would have heard of the name Bradman. If you haven’t, well, then you’re just not Australian.

Donald George Bradman was born at Cootamundra New South Wales on the 27th August 1908. He spent his childhood years growing up in Bowral, where as a young school boy, he tirelessly hit a golf ball with a cricket stump against a rainwater tank at the Bradman family home. By doing so, he taught himself hand-eye co-ordination that he later demonstrated whilst becoming the greatest batter of all time. He made his First-Class debut for NSW against South Australia on 16 December 1927 scoring 118 and 33. He made his test debut against England on 30 November 1928 scoring 18 and 1. The following test on December 14th, Bradman was 12th man; he returned to the Australian side for the third test at the Melbourne Cricket ground scoring 79 and 112. On 6 January, 1930 Bradman scored a massive 452 not out for NSW against Queensland in only 377 minutes with an impressive 49 fours. His highest score in a test was against the old enemy England on 12 July 1930, where he scored 334 in only 383 minutes. Surprisingly, Bradman could also bowl. On 15 December 1930 Bradman took his first test wicket (Ivan Burrow, lbw). His first class bowling figures are: 36 wickets for 1367 runs, with an average of 37.97. This is an impressive statistic for the man known as the greatest batsman of all time.

In 1932, Bradman married his childhood sweetheart Jessie Menzies. Bradman described their 65 year marriage as “the greatest partnership of my life”. She died in 1997.

In 1934, Bradman moved from NSW to South Australia to accept a job offer and played Sheffield Shield for that State until his retirement from cricket in 1948/1949.

From 1939 – 1946 Bradman did not play test cricket due to the Second World War.

In 1948, at the age of 40, Bradman led his team to England, winning every match, including all Five Test matches against England. The Invincibles, as they are known today, are regarded as the greatest Australian test team of all time.
In August 1948, Bradman played his last test innings. He was bowled for 0, by English bowler Hollies. Unknown to Bradman, he needed just 4 more runs to have an average of 100. On 5th March 1949, Bradman played his last innings in first class cricket. He scored 30 runs. In his career, he would score 1 x four hundred, 5 triple hundreds, 31 double hundreds, and 117 hundreds. He is the only Australian with 100 hundreds. He would average a century every 2.8 innings.

Bradman was knighted in 1949 for services to cricket and in 1979 was appointed a Commander of the Order of Australia, the highest civilian honour that can be bestowed upon an Australian in modern times. Why did Bradman stay so famous? He was not like you or me, he became famous at a very young age and as time went on, he became not only the most famous person in Australia, but a legend like no other. Unfortunately, Bradman was a very private man. He never wanted to be famous. He rarely gave interviews or made public appearances. To most of us, he was somewhat of a myth, someone you heard about, but never actually saw. Bradman was more than just a great cricketer; he was a remarkable human being.

At the peak of his fame he was receiving thousands of fan letters each week. While the rest of his team mates would spend time at the hotel bar, Bradman was in his room answering his letters and fulfilling his media commitments. He would have a few hours sleep, then go out the next morning and score the odd hundred or two!
Historians note that when Bradman was playing in the early 30’s, when the “Great Depression” had hit; Bradman’s batting would lift the spirits of the entire nation.

However, 70 odd years after the Great Depression, Bradman still lifts the spirits of many Australians.
The stories of him signing autographs are almost as legendary as his cricketing. Whether it was walking back to the dressing room after scoring 334 against England, or just going down to the local shops, Bradman would get asked to pen his name on paper and he never refused to do so.

Bradman once told the story of how one day when he was walking down to the local shop, a man spotted him and asked “Are you Sir Donald Bradman”? There was no point in saying no Bradman thought, so he replied “Yes”. The man could not believe his luck and asked Sir Donald for his autograph. The only problem was neither of them had a pen or paper. The man asked Sir Donald if he could wait while he went to the shop to buy a pen and paper. On return from the shop, Bradman was still waiting and gave the man his autograph! Would any one else in the world have shown such patience as displayed by Sir Donald Bradman on that day?
Sir Donald stopped signing autographs on a mass scale (he used to sign hundreds every week). When he turned 90, some say he signed over one million autographs. If this was the case, he would be the only person in the world to say “If I had a dollar for every autograph that I signed, I’d be a millionaire”. In fact, Bradman could have been a multimillionaire, but he generously donated all of his royalties to The Bradman Museum (BOWRAL NSW). Something he did throughout his life was to put the game of cricket before himself, but whenever we think or speak about cricket, the name Bradman evokes cricket instantaneously. It was once said, that somewhere in the world at any given moment someone is speaking about Sir Donald Bradman.

Bradman was one of the few sportsmen that were highly respected not just on the field but off the field as well. I'm not insinuating that Bradman is our only legend. We as a nation have had plenty of legends over the years, such as Dame Nellie Melba and Banjo Patterson. However, we don’t refer to them as ‘The Nellie’ or ‘The Banjo’. To most of us it just seems natural to call him ‘The Don”.

Bradman’s own team mates were in awe of him. A typical example is Ian Johnston, one of Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, who received a typed letter from “The Don” which was written over 50 years ago. Johnston a former captain of The Australian Cricket Team, had the letter framed and proudly displayed in his lounge room.
In 1995 and 1996, I was fortunate enough to meet Sir Donald Bradman. On one occasion I arrived at his house in Adelaide only to be told by a lady at the door that prior to my arrival a group of school children were sitting on the front steps of his house, whilst Sir Donald helped them in answering questions about himself for their school project.
Another time, I was behind him in my car, we drove through a school where there was a group of school children practicing cricket in the nets. Bradman stopped his car and watched the children as they practiced. None of the school children were to know that Sir Donald Bradman was watching them play cricket.
When Sir Donald George Bradman passed away on Sunday morning 25 February 2001, cricketing nations around the world mourned as one. However, none did so more than Australia. The T.V, Radio and Print Media were filled with tributes from not only his team mates, but dignitaries both in Australia and around the world. Grown men were ringing up radio stations crying. A proud and teary eyed John Howard told us all, that as a child he had watched Sir Donald play.
Four months after Bradman’s death in Adelaide, I was at Lords cricket ground for a discussion about Bradman. It was organised by The Australian High Commission in London. The day consisted of past players including Sir Alec Bedser, Ted Dexter and Trevor Bailey, dignitaries such as Lord Alexander of Weedon (President of MCC and QC at the English and NSW Bars), Richard Holt (Research Professor) who for months had studied videos of Bradman, and special guests such as Sir Timothy Rice (Lyricist, cricket journalist and MCC Committee Member) and Lord William of Elvel (Politician, cricketer and author). They had all come together in an attempt to understand what made Bradman such an outstanding cricketer. I sat in the room for over four hours to hear about every aspect of Bradman’s game. At the end of the session they had all come to the conclusion that they could not understand how, or why he was so good. Not even Bradman himself could understand it.

Sir Tim Rice told a story about when Sir Donald Bradman died. He was in America working on one of his plays when a family member rang to tell him that Bradman had died. Rice, a long time fan of Bradman, rang the New York Post and told one of the journalists that Sir Donald Bradman had died. The American journalist had never heard of Sir Donald Bradman. Rice told the journalist that Bradman was not only the greatest cricketer who had ever lived, but probably the greatest sportsman that had ever lived. The journalist not knowing that he was speaking to Sir Tim Rice asked the anonymous caller to write something about Bradman and they might put something in tomorrow’s paper. Rice told him that he was too busy to write anything about Bradman, but added that it would be a great injustice if the American people were not aware of Bradman’s passing. The next day, Rice bought a copy of the New York Post and was delighted to find a small article on Sir Donald Bradman. Rice had achieved what he had set out to do, and with a bit of luck, a few Americans learnt a little bit about the greatest sportsman of all time. It has been statistically proven that Bradman was the greatest athlete of all time, even better than American baseball greats Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio.
I spoke to Mr. Rice after the day had ended and about how Bradman was Rice’s childhood hero. At the end of our discussion, Rice said to me “If you would like to write to me send your letter to Lord’s Cricket Ground”; he then added “just like Sir Donald I always reply to all of my mail”. I thought, even if you can’t play like Bradman we can all learn about respect and courtesy from him. Even a renowned lyricist such as Sir Tim Rice got a buzz out of replying to fan mail, just like his hero Sir Donald Bradman.

The following day after Bradman died, one newspaper compared Sir Donald Bradman to Tiger Woods. We all know that Woods is a great sportsman, but do you think Mr Woods spends hours every night answering fan mail? Can you imagine Mr Woods standing on a street corner waiting for a stranger to get a pen and paper so he could sign an autograph? Can you even fathom ANY elite sportsperson to not play their sport for seven years (due to a World War) and to still be at the top of their game? And I don’t think Bradman’s father ever released a book called “How to raise a champion” like Tiger’s father did. So no, we can not compare Sir Donald George Bradman to any other sportsperson in the world, nor can we compare him to any one else!

The Great Depression has long gone and sadly so has Bradman, but the old crackly song still plays his tune “Our Don Bradman”, and to most of us he was just that……Our Don Bradman.

© 2003 Richard Simpkin.