Don Bradman – The Player

The World's Greatest Batsman


Over 60 years since retiring from Test cricket, Don Bradman still stands like a colossus over the game. With a Test batting average of 99.94 from 6996 runs, and 29 Test centuries in 80 innings, his batting success is totally comprehensive, unalienable and unrepeatable.

The Boy From Bowral:
Formative Years

Cricket was always going to figure prominently in Don Bradman’s life. Growing up in the NSW country town of Bowral during the First World War, his maternal uncles played in the local cricket competition, as did his father, George.

His mother, Emily, also enthusiastically followed the game and regularly bowled left-handed deliveries to her son in the family backyard.

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Image shows Mittagong v Bowral cricket teams in 1926. Don Bradman (seated front row, in cap) is amongst them along with his father George (standing top right), and his uncle, Dick Whatman (seated centre, with moustache and cap).


Mittagong XIII v Bowral XIII Players L-R: J Beaumont (Mittagong), R Webb (Mittagong), J Kettel (Bowral), W Jeffrey (Mittagong), F Savell (Mittagong), B Rudge (Bowral), O Prior (Bowral), W Waine (Bowral), S Cupitt (Bowral), J Harrold (Bowral), George Bradman (Umpire). (Middle Row) S Smith (Bowral), W Neal (Mittagong), G Whatman (Bowral), R Whatman (Bowral), S Willis (Bowral), TC Welsh (Mittagong), M Harold (Bowral). (Front Row) W Smythers (Umpire), A Cook (Mitagong), J Ryder (Mittagong), Don Bradman (Bowral), W Willis (Mittagong), G Bensley (Bowral), W Gallagher, W Neal (Mittagong), D Roberts (Mittagong), J Dobson (Mittagong).

Parents George and Emily Bradman, photographed in the garden of their Bowral home at 20 Glebe Street. Circa 1930.

The Tank Stand

In 1932, a young Don Bradman returns to his childhood home in Bowral and demonstrated how he practiced his batting by hitting a golf ball against the base of a tank stand, using a cricket stump.

A Boy Inspired

When aged 12 George took Don to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the 1921 England Team play Australia. The experience had a deep impact on the boy who saw Australian batsman Charlie MaCartney score a dynamic 170 and the Australian team win convincingly against their English opposition.


He commented to his father on that day: ‘I shall never be satisfied until I have played on this Ground’.

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Image front page of The Sydney Mail, March 2, 1921. Don and his father George Bradman are in the crowd watching Charlie Macartney's famous innings of 170 on Saturday February 26.

Don, aged 12 years, was too young to play in the local men’s competition but he regularly acted as scorer for the Bowral Town Cricket Club. One October week-end in 1920 he was asked to bat for the side who were a player short. In two innings, the 12 year-old made 37* and 29*. Successive years saw him become a regular player in the team. In 1926 he hit his first local century, a massive 234 runs, followed four months later by the district record score of 300. He was just 16.

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Image of Don Bradman holding his first cricket bat after breaking the district batting record, with an innings of 300, 1926.

The World Record, 1930

One year later he indelibly imprinted himself into the record books' by making a world-record score of 452 'not out' for NSW against Queensland on his beloved Sydney Cricket Ground.

Bradman chaired off by Queensland players

Global media coverage of the event, alongside consistently outstanding performances by Bradman, set a course for his becoming Australia's greatest batsman.

This ensured him a place in the 1930 Australian touring team to England where he completely dominated the English bowlers with 974 Test runs comprising four centuries at an average of 139.14. Three of those innings were double-hundreds with one, 334 at Leeds, a record Test innings score.

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Front page. Daily Pictorial Telegraph. 7 January, 1930.

The 452 Scoresheet

Original scoresheet for New South Wales (NSW) v Queensland match shows runs as scored.

Don Bradman recounts the moment:

"Apart from achieving a performance of this kind, I am gratified that the runs were made at speed and in a manner which clearly showed that I was attacking the bowling throughout the innings, and not playing defensive cricket for selfish reasons."

The World's Greatest Batsman

Australia played a Test series against the West Indies in 1930-31 and against South Africa in 1931-32. Bradman averaged 201.5 leading into the 1932-33 home Ashes “Bodyline” Series against England, captained by Douglas Jardine. Despite the acrimonious Bodyline tactics designed to reduce Bradman’s ability to score, Bradman still averaged 56.57 for the 5 Test match series, which England won 4-1.


When Australia next travelled to England in 1934, Bradman returned to true form scoring his second triple Test century 304 at Headingley, Leeds.

Bradman's famous cover drive became the symbol of his determined, powerful batting style, and is the branding of the Bradman Museum and Foundation today.

He famously said he could hit the ball wherever he wished, which he did!

A Captain's Baggy Green: The Pinnacle

In 1936-37 Bradman reached the pinnacle of Australian cricket when he was appointed captain of the national side. Pictured is the 1936-37 Baggy Green, given to him at that time. It is now housed at the Bradman Museum, donated by the legend himself.

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Test Career Overview

Tests: 52
Innings: 80
Aggregate Runs: 6,996
Batting Average: 99.94
Highest Test Score: 334
Test Centuries: 29
Not Out: 10
Catches: 32

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Image Don Bradman's 1936-37 Captain's Baggy Green cap. Bradman Museum Collection. Image by Mark Kelly.

Sir Donald Bradman's 1947/48 Blazer
Owned and worn by Sir Donald Bradman during the 1st Test series, Australia v India 1947/48. The last Test of this series was Bradman's final Test appearance in Australia. Bradman Museum Collection.

Legacy

Sir Donald Bradman was continuously involved in cricket administration for 50 consecutive years from 1936, when he became a National Selector, until 1986 when he stepped down from of the Board of South Australian Cricket Association (SACA).

He was an author, cricket journalist, and twice Chairman of the Australian Cricket Board. It is estimated he attended 1713 meetings at Adelaide Oval alone.

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Image of Australian Selector Sir Donald Bradman consulting with Australian Test Captain Richie Benaud. Brisbane, December 1962.

Sir Donald Bradman believed cricket to be the greatest character builder of all Australian sports, and a wonderful past-time for young people. He endorsed the Bradman Museum's work in showcasing cricket history, in the hope that the game would remain strong and relevant to future generations.

Following his death in 2001, former Australian Captain, colleague and friend, Richie Benaud OBE, succeeded Sir Roden Cutler VC as Patron of the Bradman Foundation, to ensure the legacy thrived. After Richie Benaud's death in 2015, the Hon. John Howard OM AC became Patron.

Reflecting on a Brilliant Career

Celebrated as Australia's greatest batsman, and international cricketer of all time, Don Bradman was awarded this trophy in 1988, as part of the bicentennial celebrations, retrospectively recognising his 309 runs in a single day's play at Headingley England, in July 1930.


The female recipient of this award was Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser for her three consecutive 100m Olympic Gold medals.

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This trophy housed at Bradman Museum. Donation Sir Donald Bradman. Image by Mark Kelly.

A letter from Lord Harris to The Times February 2,1931, read by Sir Donald Bradman at the conclusion of his last public interview.

‘You would do well to love it because it is more free from anything sordid, anything dishonourable than any game in the world. To play it keenly, honourably, generously, self-sacrificingly is a moral lesson in itself and the classroom is God’s air and sunshine. Foster it my brothers, so that it may attract all who can find the time to play it; protect it from anything that would sully it, so that it may be in favour with all men.’


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Don Bradman walks off the cricket field for the last time in First Class cricket, after scoring 53 for South Australia v NSW on February 26, 1949, Sydney Cricket Ground. Photograph by Ron Berg, Adelaide Advertiser.