A century on, Bradman’s birthday remains a big hit
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
AFP
How did parts of Australia celebrate the 100th anniversary of Don Bradman’s birth? There were lunches, dinners, speeches, toasts, stories and birthday cake.
In Bowral schoolchildren played on the same oval Bradman did towards the start of last century. "I look up to him when I am playing, not just for cricket but to show that if you persevere, anything can happen," the 12-year-old Luther Canute told the Australian.
Paul Kent, writing in the Daily Telegraph, reports on Ricky Ponting’s delivery of the Bradman Oration in Sydney.
Ponting underlined his standing not just in the game but as an Australia captain by becoming the first active cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration. He delivered his 30-minute speech deliberately without notes, for he wanted his message to come from the heart. All it needed was a lifetime of experiences, and he pitched it perfectly ...
Ponting told how a man named Bradman opened a new world of international cricket to him. Most of all, he spoke not about the legend of Bradman, but of the legacy and the responsibility his legacy demands.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo