Indra Vikram Singh's heritage and myriad strokes: August 2021

Friday, August 27, 2021

What made Don Bradman such a champion? Remembering him on his birth anniversary 27th August. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

At the end of the day, when the stumps are drawn, every cap around the arena has to be doffed at this billionaire among millionaires, emperor among kings. He shall remain that one guiding light for all succeeding batsmen to follow, the ultimate benchmark against whom all great champions of the willow will be judged.

One of them, Sir Garfield Sobers made a telling observation: “A great player will get the bowler to do what he wants him to do by his genius. He will improvise and play unorthodox shots to defeat the field. Don Bradman did that and he was the greatest of them all.” It was sometimes said of Bradman that he knew what kind of delivery the bowler was going to send down. That was because he was dictating to the bowler just what he wanted by the way he had dealt with the deliveries before.

Jack Fingleton said exactly that: “I heard prominent batsmen of his era, cast deep into the shadows that Bradman got more full tosses and long hops than anyone else. They were trying to suggest that Bradman was fortunate. He wasn’t. The point was that bowlers were made by Bradman to bowl to him as he wanted. He dictated that. His footwork, his abounding confidence, his skill pulverised the bowlers and mesmerized them. They just didn’t know where to bowl to him to keep him quiet.”

“He towered above his fellows,” wrote Fingleton in his book Cricket Crisis on the Bodyline series, “he dominated the stage so much that at one period it almost seemed that the game of cricket was subservient to the individual Bradman…..”

What was that one quality that made Don Bradman such a champion? Perhaps the one most qualified to shed light was his wife Jessie, who once told the celebrated writer and former editor of Wisden, John Woodcock: “More than anything, it was his single-mindedness; the ability to concentrate on any innings from the moment he woke up in the morning.” The key word here is focus, and who better to emphasise it than his own spouse. Let that remain the last word as well.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).