Sir Donald Bradman      

Sir Donald Bradman of Australia was, beyond any argument, the greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century. Only WG Grace, in the formative years of the game, even remotely matched his status as a player. And The Don lived on into the 21st century, more than half a century after he retired. In that time, his reputation not merely as a player but as an administrator, selector, sage and cricketing statesman only increased. His contribution transcended sport; his exploits changed Australia's relationship to what used to be called the "mother country".

Throughout the 1930s and 40s Bradman was the world's master cricketer, so far ahead of everyone else that comparisons became pointless. In 1930, he scored 974 runs in the series, 309 of them in one amazing day at Headingley, and in seven Test series against England he remained a figure of utter dominance; Australia lost the Ashes only once, in 1932-33, when England were so spooked by Bradman that they devised a system of bowling, Bodyline, that history has damned as brutal and unfair, simply to thwart him. He still averaged 56 in the series.

In all, he went to the crease 80 times in Tests, and scored 29 centuries. He needed just four in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, to ensure an average of 100 ­- but was out second ball for 0, a rare moment of human failing that only added to his everlasting appeal. Bradman made all those runs at high speed in a manner that bewildered opponents and entranced spectators. Though his batting was not classically beautiful, it was always awesome.
Matthew Engel

Essay
"He's out!" - to the thousands who read them, whether they were interested in cricket or not, the two words blazoned across the London evening newspaper placards could have meant only one thing: somewhere, someone had managed to dismiss Don Bradman, of itself a lifelong claim to fame.

Sir Donald George Bradman was, without any question, the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games. To start with, he had a deep and undying love of cricket, as well, of course, as exceptional natural ability. It was always said he could have become a champion at squash or tennis or golf or billiards, had he preferred them to cricket. The fact that, as a boy, he sharpened his reflexes and developed his strokes by hitting golf ball with a cricket stump as it rebounded off a water tank attests to his eye, fleetness of foot and, even when young, his rare powers of concentration.

Bradman himself was of the opinion that there were other batsmen, contemporaries of his, who had the talent to be just as prolific as he was but lacked the concentration. Stan McCabe, who needed a particular challenge to bring the best of him, was no doubt one of them. "I wish I could bat like that", Bradman's assessment of McCabe's 232 in the Trent Bridge Test of 1938, must stand with W.G.'s "Give me Arthur" [Shrewsbury], when asked to name the best batsman he had played with, as the grandest tribute ever paid by one great cricketer to another.

So, with the concentration and the commitment and the calculation and the certainty that were synonymous with Bradman, went a less obvious but no less telling humility. He sought privacy and attracted adulation.

How did anyone ever get him out? The two bowlers to do it most often, if sometimes at horrendous cost, were both spinners - Clarrie Grimmett, who had ten such coups to his credit with leg-breaks and googlies, and Hedley Verity, who also had ten, eight of them for England. Is there anything, I wonder, to be deduced from this? Both, for example, had a flattish trajectory, which may have deterred Bradman from jumping out to drive, something he was always looking to do.

Grimmett was not, in fact, the only wrist-spinner to make the great man seem, at times, almost mortal. Bill O'Reilly was another - Bradman called him the finest and therefore, presumably, the most testing bowler he played against - as were Ian Peebles and Walter Robins; and it was with a googly that Eric Hollies bowled him for a duck in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, when he was within four runs of averaging 100 in Test cricket. Perhaps, very occasionally, he did have trouble reading wrist-spin; but that, after all, is its devious purpose.

By his own unique standards, Bradman was discomfited by Bodyline, the shameless method of attack which Douglas Jardine employed to depose him in Australia in 1932-33. Discomfited, yes - but he still averaged 56.57 in the Test series. If there really is a blemish on his amazing record it is, I suppose, the absence of a significant innings on one of those "sticky dogs" of old, when the ball was hissing and cavorting under a hot sun following heavy rain. This is not to say he couldn't have played one, but that on the big occasion, when the chance arose, he never did.

His dominance on all other occasions was absolute. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow called the Don "that rarest of Nature's creatures, a genius with an eye for business." He could be 250 not out and yet still scampering the first run to third man or long leg with a view to inducing a fielding error. Batsmen of today would be amazed had they seen it, and better cricketers for having done so. It may be apocryphal, but if, to a well-wisher, he did desire his 309 not out on the first day of the Headingley Test of 1930 as a nice bit of practice for tomorrow, he could easily have meant it.

He knows as well as anyone, though, that with so much more emphasis being placed on containment and so many fewer overs being bowled, his 309 of 70 years ago would be nearer 209 today. Which makes it all the more fortuitous that he played when he did, by doing so, he had the chance to renew a nation and reinvent a game. His fame, like W.G.'s, will never fade. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

• August 27, 1908
  Small town, big boy
  • Donald George Bradman is born in the small country town of Cootamundra in New South Wales
    
• 1920
  High school, high score
  • Scores his first century, aged 12, for the Bowral Intermediate High School, but gets in trouble from the headmaster for leaving a bat behind
    
• 1925
  O'Reilly gets a taste of the future
  • Starts playing regularly for Bowral and collects 234 against Wingello, a team which includes Bill O'Reilly, the future Australian legspinning great. Later in the summer he picks up 300 against Moss Vale, finishing the season with 1318 runs at 101.3
    
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• 1927-28
  First-rate first-class debut
  • After being invited to state practice and joining Sydney's St George club the previous year, he makes his first-class debut for New South Wales, scoring 118 in Adelaide on the same day Bill Ponsford captured the first-class world record of 437
    
• 1928-29
  Dropped for the first - and last - time
  • Plays first Test but manages only 18 and 1 and Australia lose by 675 runs. Dropped for the only time in his career, he returns for the third game and confirms his promise with 79 and 112
    
• 1929-30
  Ponsford is second-best
  • Bradman takes Ponsford's first-class world record with 452 against Queensland in Sydney. The innings lasts for 415 minutes, more than two hours quicker than Ponsford's effort
    
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• 1930
  Raining runs - Part I
  • A never-to-be-repeated flood of runs on his first tour to England. By the end of the five Tests he has 974, including a world record 334 at Headingley, 254 at Lord's, 232 at The Oval and 131 at Trent Bridge. Beginning with 236 at Worcester, he has 1000 runs by the end of May and finishes with 2690, the most by any Australian batsman in a season
    
• 1931
  Officially the best
  • Named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for his performances in England the previous summer. In August an offer arrives to play in the Lancashire League for Accrington, which is increased to £600 per season. He rejects it, signing a combined newspaper-radio contract to secure his welfare during the harsh economic times
    
• 1931-32
  Raining runs - Part II
  • In his most successful home Test season, he scores 226, 112, 2, 167 and 299* against South Africa, but does not bat in the final Test because of a twisted ankle. In the same summer he thrashes 256 in a second-class fixture against a team from Lithgow, including taking 100 runs in three eight-ball overs
    
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• April 30, 1932
  Finally, a match for Bradman
  • Marries Jessie Menzies in Sydney and she accompanies him on a tour of the United States and Canada with a team arranged by Arthur Mailey, the former Australia legspinner. Bradman meets Babe Ruth at a Yankees game
    
• 1932-33
  It's just not cricket
  • Jardine's Bodyline almost halves Bradman's average - he managed 56.57 per innings - and is a success as England win the series 4-1. Bradman misses the first Test with illness and falls first ball on his return in Melbourne, before raising his only century, 103 not out, in the second innings
    
• 1934
  More records, and an illness
  • In February he moves from New South Wales to South Australia, where he joins the stockbroking firm of Harry Hodgett's, a Board of Control board member. Chosen as vice-captain under Bill Woodfull for the 1934 England tour, Bradman repeats his Leeds triple-century of four years earlier, producing 304, and earns a world-record partnership for the second wicket - Ponsford 226; Bradman 244 - at The Oval. Shortly before catching the boat home, he is diagnosed with appendicitis and is operated on immediately. Making a slow recovery, he misses the entire 1934-35 summer in Australia
    
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• 1935-36
  Sheffield glory
  • In his first season at South Australia he captains the undefeated team to the Sheffield Shield. There were two triple-centuries that summer, 357 against Victoria, and 369 against Tasmania
    
• 1936-37
  Captain, selector, winner
  • After becoming a national selector, Bradman experiences his first Test series as captain and loses the first two games against England. Scores of 270, 212 and 169 help win the next three fixtures - and the series. The sequence also ends the calls for Victor Richardson to become the country's leader
    
• 1938
  On the wrong side of a record
  • Finally there are some world records against Bradman. At The Oval Len Hutton posts 364 as England reach 903 for 7 in the final Test. In a rare bowling appearance, Bradman slips in a foothole and breaks a bone in his ankle, ending his tour. The four-game series is drawn 1-1, but Australia retain the Ashes
    
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• 1938-39
  Squash? Win it, leave it
  • Playing for South Australia, he equals CB Fry's world record for six successive first-class centuries. Showing his many skills, he wins the South Australian squash championship and never plays another competitive game
    
• 1939-40
  War days
  • Enlists with the RAAF as a member of the air crew, but due to his age heads to the army instead. While there, he is diagnosed with fibrositis and the condition becomes so bad he can't lift his right arm. He recovers slowly after a long period of rest. Three years after his first son dies shortly after birth, his second son John arrives in 1939. Daughter Shirley comes two years later
    
• 1945-46
  End of a great career?
  • Suffers another bout of fibrositis and does not expect to play cricket again
    
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• 1946-47
  Doctors be damned
  • Defying the opinions of his doctors, Bradman returns to action and convinces himself he is ready for the Test series against England. The decision is justified in the first game with 187 in Brisbane, which he follows with 234 in the next match in Sydney. His partnership of 405 with Sid Barnes is a world record for the fifth wicket
    
• 1947-48
  A hundred times a hundred
  • Brings up his 100th first-class century against the touring Indians, reaching 172 at the SCG. By the end of the Test series he has 204 hundreds. Before the final match he signals his intent to retire after the 1948 tour
    
• 1948
  Invincible at 40
  • Turning 40 during the trip, he leads the Invincibles to an undefeated tour of England and takes 173 not out in the world-record chase in the fourth Test in Leeds. In the next match at The Oval his fourth-ball duck leaves him with an average of 99.94
    
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• January 1, 1949
  Sir Donald
  • The announcement comes that he will be knighted for his services to cricket
    
• September 13, 1960
  Giving back
  • Elected chairman of the Australian Board of Control and holds the position for one three-year term, repeating the assignment in September 1969. He is part of the board from September 1945 to 1979
    
• February 1963
  Relief for bowlers
  • Bats for the final time in a match, entering at No. 5 and making 4 for the Prime Minister's XI against England in Canberra
    
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• February 1971
  Another innings ends
  • Retires from role as Australian selector, a position held since 1936-37, apart from a couple of years in the early 1950s when his son John was sick with polio
    
• January 5, 1974
  Immortalised at the SCG
  • Attends the opening of the Bradman Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground
    
• 1987
  A man and his museum
  • The Bradman Museum Trust forms and two years later Bradman is at the pavilion opening. It is next to Bradman Oval, which is across the road from his childhood home
    
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• 1996
  Hall of Fame
  • Inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
    
• 2000
  All-time best
  • Named one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Century alongside Jack Hobbs, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers and Shane Warne
    
• September 14, 1997
  Loss of a partner
  • Lady Jessie Bradman dies of cancer in Adelaide. She was 88.
    
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• February 25, 2001
  Brightly fades the Don
  • Bradman dies in his sleep at home in his Kensington Park home in Adelaide, aged 92. His and his wife's ashes are scattered around Bradman Oval in Bowral
    
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• 254 v England, Lord's, 1930
  • There were many out-of-this-world performances from Bradman, but this innings at Lord's was the pinnacle, mainly because he said it was. "Practically without exception every ball went where it was intended," Bradman wrote in Farewell to Cricket. It was his second Test of his maiden trip to England and the innings began with the fastest Test fifty of his career, the initial milestone arriving in 45 minutes. Neville Cardus described it as "the most murderous onslaught I have ever known in a Test match". "After tea a massacre, nothing less. Never before this hour, or two hours until close of play, and never since, has a batsman equalled Bradman's cool deliberate murder or spifflication of all bowling." A century came in the final session of the second day and almost 24 hours after it started, the innings ended with Bradman falling to an excellent diving catch at extra cover by Percy Chapman. Bradman, aged 21 and the youngest Test double-century maker, had stayed for 376 balls, piercing 25 fours, and launched a reputation for supreme greatness.
    
• 334 v England, Headingley, 1930
  • Two weeks after his best innings, Bradman produced his biggest. The previous highest in the Ashes was Tip Foster's 287 at the SCG in 1903-04, but Bradman beat that by the end of the opening day in Leeds, which concluded with a drive for four through cover. His century came before lunch, another 115 runs were added between the break and tea, and at stumps he walked off with sore feet, a fresh mind and 309. There were a couple of chances, but Sir Pelham Warner said it best: "This is like throwing stones at Gibraltar." A quiet night followed before a more difficult second day, with Bradman edging Maurice Tate to George Duckworth after half an hour. With 974 runs on an astounding tour of records and bowling ruins, Bradman's old, quiet life was over.
    
• 103 not out v England, MCG, 1932-33
  • Both England and Australia were pleased Bradman was playing in the second Test. Douglas Jardine was desperate to try his tailor-made Bodyline plan; the home supporters wanted their hero to conquer it. Mass silence came with Bradman's first-ball duck to Bill Bowes in the opening innings, but there was plenty of noise in the second when he steered Australia to a match-winning lead of 250. Even Bradman was uncomfortably against Bodyline, but he jinked and ducked, hooked and pulled, to frustrate the tourists. His century was not secure until after Bert Ironmonger, the No. 11, joined him and survived the two deliveries needed to end Wally Hammond's over. Six balls later Bradman lofted Bill Voce over the legside and the three runs took him to his hundred. It was probably the most important of his career.
    
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• 270 v England, MCG, 1936-37
  • Having taken the captaincy two games earlier, Bradman was suddenly faced with unusual scrutiny after losing both contests. Worse still, Australia started their second innings in the third game in Melbourne on a terribly wet wicket, with England declaring 124 runs behind in the hope of a quick demolition of the home team. Bradman, struggling with flu, shuffled the order, sending the bowlers in first, and dropping himself to No. 7, all the while hoping the conditions would improve. Opening cautiously after arriving at 5 for 97, his confidence soon grew and by the end of his 346-run partnership with Jack Fingleton they owned the world record for the sixth wicket. Bradman batted for two days and Australia went on to win by 365 runs. In the final two Tests he added 212 and 169, earning a magnificent 3-2 series success.
    
• 173 not out v England, Headingley, 1948
  • Bradman's 29th and final Test century came with another world record, this time for the highest successful run-chase. Set 404 inside the last day, Australia looked to the soon-to-be 40-year-old Bradman, Arthur Morris and some help from the England bowlers, who delivered a "succession of full tosses". Bradman struck 29 fours to Morris' 33 and stayed until the end, with Neil Harvey sealing the win which formed the high point for the Invincibles. They were Bradman's last Test runs.
    
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