Test Cricket: The Bradman Era 1928-48

 Test Cricket: The Bradman Era

30 November 1928 to 18 August 1948

Don Bradman's 'Invincibles' of 1948.

Team Performances

Australia - 1928 to 1948, Tests Played 60, Won 35, Lost 14, Drawn 11, Success % 67.50

England - 1928 to 1948, Tests Played 105, Won 33, Lost 24, Drawn 48, Success % 54.28

West Indies - 1930 to 1948, Tests Played 23, Won 6, Lost 9, Drawn 8, Success % 43.47

South Africa - 1929 to 1947, Tests Played 37, Won 4, Lost 15, Drawn 18, Success % 35.13

New Zealand - 1930 to 1947, Tests Played 16, Won 0, Lost 6, Drawn 10, Success % 31.25

India - 1932 to 1948, Tests Played 15, Won 0, Lost 10, Drawn 5, Success % 16.66

(Success % = Won 2 points, Drawn 1 point)

Australia’s graph continued to rise during the Bradman years. Pre-World War I, they trailed England. Between the two World Wars, they overtook England by a substantial margin, as the Bradman effect took shape. By the time the Bradman era was over in 1948, Australia had stamped their superiority in no uncertain terms. Their success percentage was 67.50, whereas England lagged behind at 54.28. West Indies were beginning to make their presence felt, and leapfrogged to third place at 43.47. There was little change in the fortunes of South Africa, New Zealand and India, the latter two still unable to win a Test.

In the 11 Test series that Bradman played, Australia lost just two, his first in 1928-29 and the Bodyline series in 1932-33. The Ashes series in 1938 was drawn. Australia won the other eight series, five of them against England. In addition, let us remember that Bradman could not tour South Africa in 1935-36 due to illness, in which Australia won 4-0, with one Test drawn. 

 

Top Batsmen

During the Bradman era, his great rival Wally Hammond scored 6817 runs in 77 Tests and 128 innings at an average of 60.32 with 22 hundreds and 20 fifties.

Don Bradman hit up 6996 runs in 52 Tests and 80 innings at an average of 99.94 with 29 hundreds and 13 fifties.

That was the difference between the greatest and the other greats of Test match batting. No one else aggregated 3000 runs during this period.

The highest averages among those who scored 1000 runs and above during this period were:

Don Bradman (Australia), 1928-48, Tests 52, Innings 80, Not Out 10, Highest Score 334, Runs 6996, Average 99.94, 100s 29, 50s 13.

Arthur Morris (Australia), 1946-48, Tests 14, Innings 22, Not Out 3, Highest Score 196, Runs 1408, Average 74.10, 100s 7, 50s 4.

George Headley (West Indies) 1930-48, Tests 20, Innings 37, Not Out 4, Highest Score 270*, Runs 2171, Average 65.78, 100s 10, 50s 5.

Dennis Compton (England) 1937-48, Tests 27, Innings 45, Not Out 7, Highest Score 208, Runs 2426, Average 63.84, 100s 10, 50s 10.

Sidney Barnes (Australia), 1938-48, Tests 13, Innings 19, Not Out 2, Highest Score 234, Runs 1072, Average 63.05, 100s 3, 50s 5.

Wally Hammond (England) 1928-47, Tests 77, Innings 128, Not Out 15, Highest Score 336*, Runs 6817, Average 60.32, 100s 22, 50s 20.

Eddie Paynter (England) 1931-39, Tests 20, Innings 31, Not Out 5, Highest Score 243, Runs 1540, Average 59.23, 100s 4, 50s 7.

Herbert Sutcliffe (England) 1928-35, Tests 31, Innings 50, Not Out 6, Highest Score 194, Runs 2463, Average 55.97, 100s 9, 50s 12.

Dudley Nourse (South Africa) 1935-47, Tests 19, Innings 35, Not Out 4, Highest Score 231, Runs 1718, Average 55.41, 100s 5, 50s 9.

Len Hutton (England) 1937-48, Tests 32, Innings 57, Not Out 5, Highest Score 364, Runs 2742, Average 52.73, 100s 7, 50s 13.

Bill Ponsford (Australia), 1928-34, Tests 22, Innings 35, Not Out 4, Highest Score 266, Runs 1617, Average 52.16, 100s 5, 50s 5.

Patsy Hendren (England) 1928-35, Tests 28, Innings 49, Not Out 4, Highest Score 205*, Runs 2277, Average 50.60, 100s 4, 50s 13.

Obviously, no one comes even remotely close to Don Bradman’s average of 99.94. The Australian left-handed opener Arthur Morris is second at 74.10. No wonder The Don close him in his all-time team. But the sample size is small at 14 Tests and 1408 runs. In his entire career upto 1955, Morris played 46 Tests, and scored 3533 runs at an average of 46.48. There is not much difference in the career averages of the other players, though Denis Compton dropped from an average of 63.84 in the Bradman years to 50.06 in his entire career of 78 Tests for 5807 runs till 1957.

It would be fair to say that in comparison with Bradman’s average of nearly 100, the next best averaged around 60.

Less than 1000 runs but above 500 runs with average of 50 and more:

KS Duleepsinhji (England) 1929-31, Tests 12, Innings 19, Not Out 2, Highest Score 173, Runs 995, Average 58.52, 100s 3, 50s 5.

Alan Melville (South Africa), 1938-47, Tests 10, Innings 17, Not Out 2, Highest Score 189, Runs 855, Average 57.00, 100s 4, 50s 3.

Cyril Walters (England) 1933-34, Tests 11, Innings 18, Not Out 3, Highest Score 102, Runs 784, Average 52.26, 100 1, 50s 7.

CS ‘Stewie’ Dempster (New Zealand) 1930-33, Tests 10, Innings 15, Not Out 4, Highest Score 136, Runs 723, Average 65.72, 100s 2, 50s 5.

Andy Sandham (England) 1930, Tests 4, Innings 8, Not Out -, Highest Score 325, Runs 592, Average 74.00, 100s 2, 50s 2.

Highest Scores:

Len Hutton, 364, England v Australia, The Oval, London, 1938

Wally Hammond, 336*, England v New Zealand, Auckland, 1932-33

Don Bradman, 334, Australia v England, Leeds, 1930

Andy Sandham, 325, England v West Indies, Kingston, 1929-30

Don Bradman, 304, Australia v England, Leeds, 1934

Don Bradman, 299*, Australia v South Africa, Adelaide, 1931-32

George Headley, 270*, West Indies v England, Kingston, 1934-35

Don Bradman, 270, Australia v England, Melbourne, 1936-37

Bill Ponsford, 266, Australia v England, The Oval, London, 1934 

Don Bradman, 254, Australia v England, Lord’s, London, 1930

Wally Hammond, 251, England v Australia, Sydney, 1928-29

England’s Andy Sandham scored the first triple-century in Test cricket in April 1930, 325 against the West Indies at Kingston. Three months later, Don Bradman took the record away, becoming the only batsman to hit up a Test triple-century in a day, eventually finishing on 334 at Leeds. After the Bodyline series in 1932-33, England travelled to New Zealand, Wally Hammond scoring 336 not out at Auckland. Five years later, Len Hutton logged up 364 at The Oval. The record stood for well-nigh two decades until Gary Sobers broke it.

In the Bradman era, of the 11 scores of 250 and above, The Don knocked up five, including two triple centuries and an unbeaten 299. A total of 35 double and triple centuries were scored during this time, of which Bradman had 12 to his name. Hammond was next with 7, and George Headley and Eddie Paynter 2 each. Twelve others had one score of 200 or more.

The full Test career records of the top batsmen of this era, according to their averages, are:

Don Bradman, span 1928-48, Tests 52, Highest Score 334, Runs 6996, Average 99.94, Hundreds 29, Fifties 13

Sidney Barnes, span 1938-48, Tests 13, Highest Score 234, Runs 1072, Average 63.05, Hundreds 3, Fifties 5

George Headley, span 1930-54, Tests 22, Highest Score 270*, Runs 2190, Average 60.83, Hundreds 10, Fifties 5

Herbert Sutcliffe, span 1924-1935, Tests 54, Highest Score 194, Runs 4555, Average 60.73, Hundreds 16, Fifties 23

Eddie Paynter, span 1931-39, Tests 20, Highest Score 243, Runs 1540, Average 59.23, Hundreds 4, Fifties 7

Wally Hammond, span 1927-47, Tests 85, Highest Score 336*, Runs 7249, Average 58.45, Hundreds 22, Fifties 24

Len Hutton, span 1937-55, Tests 79, Highest Score 364, Runs 6971, Average 56.67, Hundreds 19, Fifties 33

Dudley Nourse, 1935-51, Tests 34, Highest Score 231, Runs 2960, Average 53.81, Hundreds 9, Fifties 14

Denis Compton, span 1937-57, Tests 78, Highest Score 278, Runs 5807, Average 50.06, Hundreds 17, Fifties 28

Bruce Mitchell, 1929-49, Tests 42, Highest Score 189*, Runs 3471, Average 48.88, Hundreds 8, Fifties 21

Bill Ponsford, span 1924-34, Tests 29, Highest Score 266, Runs 2122, Average 48.22, Hundreds 7, Fifties 6

Stan McCabe, 1930-38, Tests 39, Highest Score 232, Runs 2748, Average 48.21, Hundreds 6, Fifties 13

Patsy Hendren, span 1920-35, Tests 51, Highest Score 205*, Runs 3525, Average 47.63, Hundreds 7, Fifties 21

Arthur Morris, span 1946-55, Tests 46, Highest Score 206, Runs 3533, Average 46.48, Hundreds 12, Fifties 12

Maurice Leyland, 1928-38, Tests 41, Highest Score 187, Runs 2764, Average 46.06, Hundreds 9, Fifties 10

Leslie Ames, 1929-39, Tests 47, Highest Score 149, Runs 2434, Average 40.56, Hundreds 8, Fifties 7

There is no doubt that the period 1928 to 1948, interrupted by the Second World War, was the Bradman era

Don Bradman’s superb double century in the final Test clinched the Ashes 1930 series for Australia. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century'

Don Bradman acknowledging the cheers of the crowd on reaching his double century in the final Test at The Oval in 1930. With the series tied 1-1, Bradman’s superb 232 turned this Test in Australia’s favour, a decisive role in regaining the Ashes

With the 1930 series tied 1-1 before the fifth Test at The Oval, it was a game without limit. Bob Wyatt was England captain in place of Percy Chapman, who in the face of Don Bradman’s onslaught was now viewed as prodigal, if not primeval. Sutcliffe dropped anchor, scoring 161 and England logged up a total of 405 in this battle of nerves.

The old firm of Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford raised 159 upfront, and it was the latter who was dismissed first after scoring a fine 110. Bradman joined the stonewaller Woodfull, who left after tallying a patient 54 in three-and-a-quarter hours. Bradman was unbeaten with 27 at stumps, with Alan Kippax keeping him company.

Rain now played a part, but Bradman was steadfast on the tricky wet track. Douglas Jardine was a bystander in the series but he reckoned that he saw flaws in Bradman’s game against fast bowling on the damp wicket. At the end of the curtailed third day, Bradman was nevertheless still at the crease with 130 runs to his name, with Archie Jackson by his side. The only wicket lost was that of Kippax, and Australia were just two runs behind.

Bradman stroked his way to a double century and with Jackson put on 243 for the fourth wicket before the talented youngster fell for 73. Stan McCabe helped Bradman add another 64 runs. Australia were 165 ahead when Bradman finally edged Harold Larwood into George Duckworth’s gloves. His 232 had come off 417 balls in 438 minutes, aided by 16 boundaries.

It was a match-winning knock played at a crucial juncture in testing conditions, and it put Australia in the driver’s seat in their quest to reclaim the Ashes. If his breathtaking 254 at Lord’s was instrumental in levelling the series, Bradman’s dominant 232 at London’s other ground clinched it for Australia. McCabe, Alan Fairfax and Bert Oldfield kept up the momentum, the lead mounting to 290. Ian Peebles was rewarded for his 71 overs of toil with a haul of six for 204.

Fairfax bowled Jack Hobbs before stumps and England were pushed against the wall at 24 for one. Rain washed out the fifth day’s play. When the game resumed, England could not forge any partnership of real significance. Percival Hornibrook captured seven of the eight wickets that fell to bowlers on the final day. Wally Hammond was last out for 60 as England folded up for 251. The significance could not have been lost on anyone as the mantle of the best batsman in the world passed on to the superstar from Down Under, Don Bradman.

It was a momentous tour. Having played a pivotal role in winning the Ashes, Bradman scored an unprecedented 974 runs in the series, still unequalled to this day, at an average of 139.14. He got all these runs at 40 an hour without hitting a six. Rarely did Bradman loft the ball. Some felt that this aggregate was the equivalent of Sydney Barnes’ feat of 49 wickets in four Tests against South Africa in 1913-14, but against better opposition. No other batsman from either side got even half of Bradman’s tally, nor even more than one hundred.

Mammoth scores kept coming repeatedly from his willow like giant waves slapping the shore – a century, two double centuries and a triple century. The double hundreds decided the series. Without doubt the English would need to introspect deeply. C.B. Fry, himself a man of many parts and incredibly talented, was enchanted with Bradman’s display: “I wish I could have used my bat like Don. He is a gem of a batsman. I just love his finished technique and inevitable surety.”

As much as the runs that he scored, Bradman filled the counties’ coffers as never before. Jon Stock related a tale, perhaps apocryphal, in The Week: “Don was the bane of every bowler’s life, but he was also a commercial opportunity. Dai Davies, a Glamorgan player, recalls how he once came close to bowling Bradman in 1930. He was flabbergasted when instead of encouraging him, his captain Maurice Turnbull told Davies that his services wouldn’t be required that day. ‘But I’ll get him out the next over,’ Davies pleaded. ‘That’s what we don’t want,’ Turnbull replied. ‘Can’t you see, we’ve got to keep him in for Monday (the August bank holiday)?’ Glamorgan made a small profit at the end of that year thanks entirely to that game’s proceeds.”

By the final Test, his ninth, Bradman had reached an average of 100, and had as many as six three-figure knocks. His aggregate now stood at 1442 runs, the average 103. In all first-class matches during that tour of 1930, Bradman hit up 2960 runs, the most any visiting batsman has done, and notched up 10 hundreds. He topped the averages among all batsmen during that season at 98.66, which he did on all his tours to England.

If anybody had lingering doubts about Bradman’s ability to cope with English conditions, they had been dispelled in the most vehement manner possible. From now on batting had only one don, perhaps forever. That Wisden selected Bradman as one of its cricketers of the year in its 1931 edition is only stating the obvious. A most telling comment came from the great allrounder Wilfred Rhodes, a shrewd judge of the game, and not one to shower praise lightly: “I bowled against all the best from 1900 to 1930 - Hobbs, Trumper, Grace and Ranji among them and many, many more - but Bradman was the greatest.”          

Ian Peebles, who bowled to Bradman during this series, wrote in the World of Cricket: “It was not until the series got underway that the cricket world gradually realised that this young man Bradman had inaugurated a new era and somewhat reinterpreted the old adage that ‘bowlers win matches’. Never before had an individual batsman so consistently given bowlers the opportunity of winning matches by the speed and extent of his scoring.”

Financially, the tour brought Bradman a bonanza. In addition to the ₤ 600 paid by The Board of Control for the six-month effort, which was easily double an average annual wage at the time, and the reward of ₤ 1000 bestowed on him by Arthur Whitelaw, was the contract for his first book Don Bradman’s Book of Cricket and its serialisation in the press. Bradman’s earnings came to a whopping ₤ 5000.

Don Bradman was now a folk hero in Australia, and he began receiving several offers for commercial endorsements. ‘Bradmania’ had besieged the minds of his countrymen. Whenever word spread that Bradman was at Mick Simmons, huge crowds would congregate outside. It was not long before a musical tribute was paid to him. ‘Our Don Bradman’ was an affectionate tune that became popular in the 1930s. Described as a ‘snappy fox trot song’, it hailed ‘Australia’s batting phenomenon’. Deft pianist that he was, Bradman himself composed a song ‘Every Day is a Rainbow Day for Me’.

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

Don’s Century 

Published in India by Sporting Links 

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0 

Fully illustrated 

Paperback French Fold 

11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches 

Weight 480 grams 

188 pages 

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1 

Observations of the doyen of writers Neville Cardus on Don Bradman

 

The doyen of writers, Sir Neville Cardus, was in the press box when Don Bradman scored his 334 at Leeds in 1930. He wrote later in his book Play Resumed with Cardus: “At Leeds Bradman announced his rights to mastership in a few swift moments. He made 72 runs in his first hour at the wicket, giving to us every bit of cricket excepting the leg-glance. Every fine point of batsmanship was to be admired; strokes powerful and swift and accurate and handsome; variety of craft controlled with singleness of mind and purpose. Bradman was as determined to take no risks, as was to hit boundaries from every ball the least loose. And his technique is so extensive and practised that he can get runs at the rate of 50 an hour, without once needing to venture romantically into the realms of the speculative or the empirical.”

Countering the criticisms of Bradman, Neville Cardus put forward his argument with customary finesse: “People say ‘Oh, but he hasn’t the charm of McCabe, or the mercury of MacCartney, or the dignity of Hammond; the objection is a little unintelligent, as though a lion was criticized for lacking the delicacy of the gazelle, the worrying tenacity of the terrier and the disdainful elegance of a swan or a camel.”

Cardus summed up his views of Bradman with his famous observation, “Bradman’s achievements stagger the imagination. No writer of boys’ fiction would dare to invent a hero who performed with Bradman’s continual consistency. His batsmanship delights one’s knowledge of the game, his every stroke is a dazzling and precious stone in the game’s crown”.

(Source: Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’, a cricketing biography of Don Bradman and a panorama of batting from the 1860s to present times).

Don’s Century

Published in India by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Fully illustrated

Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

Weight 480 grams

188 pages

 

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

The three great innings of Stan McCabe. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

One of Bradman’s compatriots in the Australian middle-order through the 1930s was Stan McCabe. He was every bit a top-class player, orthodox yet aggressive, and one of the least heralded. His status was perhaps akin to V.V.S. Laxman of modern times, ever the artist but forced to live in the shadows of the mighty Sachin Tendulkar, the reliable Rahul Dravid, the delightful Sourav Ganguly and the maverick Virender Sehwag. McCabe’s deeds were eclipsed by the prodigious run-getting of Bradman and Ponsford.

187 not out versus England at Sydney, 1932-33

Just as Laxman’s memorable knocks against the world’s best team, Australia, notably his astonishing 281 at Kolkata in 2001 will ever remain etched in the minds of the public and critics alike, so have been brilliant innings of McCabe for over 80 years already. His courageous, defiant unbeaten 187 at Sydney in the first Test of the 1932-33 Bodyline series was a terrific riposte under daunting circumstances. Bradman did not play that Test due to his dispute with the Australian Board of Control. As McCabe stood up boldly to the short-pitched stuff and hooked it disdainfully, critics concluded that he handled Douglas Jardine’s abominable leg-theory with greater finesse than Bradman.

Learie Constantine in his The Young Cricketer’s Companion wrote: “When Larwood went to Australia and tied Bradman and most of the rest of them in sheep bends and clove hitches and made some batsmen drop their bats and others sit on their wickets, it was McCabe who improvised a daring hook to the leg boundary and made a brilliant century against bodyline as he has done against most other kinds of bowling without the least favouritism.”

189 not out versus South Africa at Johannesburg, 1935-36

If his display at Sydney revealed a tough mind, McCabe’s performance at high altitude at Johannesburg’s Old Wanderers in 1935-36 was a triumph of skill over limitations imposed by physical distress. With Australia at 85 for one, chasing another 314 for a win on the fourth and final day, McCabe, short of breath as a result of the rarefied air, and bleary of eye for the sleepless night he had spent, was in no condition to bat. He informed Vic Richardson of his discomfort. The skipper, in no position to oblige, urged his star batsman - Bradman could not join the tour - to continue his innings, then anchored at 59: “If the altitude gets to you, don’t run. Just hit fours.”

Left with no option, McCabe breezed out to the crease with the other not out, Jack Fingleton. Deliveries leapt and turned square on the dusty wearing track, but McCabe’s elegant shots found the gaps time and time again. He raised his hundred in 91 minutes, fourth quickest at the time after the feats of Jack Gregory (70 minutes in 1921-22 at this very venue), Gilbert Jessop (75 minutes in 1902) and James Sinclair (80 minutes in 1902-03). He clocked up an exact 100 before lunch, carving out 20 boundaries. Australia now needed 182 runs to win in two full sessions. Fingleton offered a broad blade and when he was castled for 40, the partnership was worth 177, of which McCabe’s share was 148. Fingleton recalled, “McCabe’s innings seemed like a crazy dream to me.”

As the thunderclouds drifted in from the northwest, the South African captain Herbert Wade appealed against the light on the plea that McCabe’s ferocious strokeplay was endangering his fielders! It was still only 2.45 in the afternoon and soon the heavens opened up with McCabe on 189, and Australia poised at 274 for two.

Ray Robinson wrote in Between the Wickets: “McCabe’s brilliance had so transformed the situation that, instead of struggling to stall off defeat, the Australians were playing like winners with 125 more to get and eight wickets in hand. He had batted three and a quarter hours for his 189, while 66 were scored at the other end. He hit 29 4s, probably a record for a Test innings under 200.” He was indeed following his skipper’s instructions to a tee, and in the process South African Dudley Nourse’s second innings 231 was forgotten.

Don Bradman (left) and Stan McCabe walking out to bat.

232 versus England at Nottingham, 1938

The third signature McCabe knock was at Trent Bridge in 1938, marked by exquisite strokeplay. He came to the crease at the fall of Bradman’s wicket. It was a breathtaking innings of 232 in only 230 minutes, during which eight of his partners departed, having managed a mere 68 all told, extras included. The next highest was Bradman’s 51. It was then the second-fastest double century in 223 minutes, after Bradman’s (in 214 minutes in 1930), and a shade quicker than Trumper’s (226 minutes in 1910-11).

Vic Marks noted: “The wicket was a lot easier than the time Jessop turned the tide, but McCabe’s strokeplay was purer with scarcely a hint of risk, and accompanied by masterly manipulation of the strike.” So awesome was the strokemaking that Bradman summoned his players - some of whom were playing cards - to the balcony, telling them: “You won’t see strokeplay like this again. McCabe hit 72 out of the last-wicket stand of 77 with Fleetwood-Smith in a matter of 28 minutes.”

The full significance of the innings was elaborated by Denzil Batchelor, when he observed: “McCabe had done a unique thing. Many men have won matches off their own bat. On this wicket, and with England’s skyscraping score, such a feat was not possible - so McCabe had done more. He had come in at a moment in history when it seemed certain that the sun was about to set on a long period in Australian ascendancy. McCabe, by his own efforts, had stopped the sun, and saved the Australian empire.” The series was ultimately drawn 1-1.

Nicknamed ‘Napper’ for his striking resemblance to Napolean, he rekindled nostalgia for the strokeplay of Trumper and Macartney. As Ken Piesse wrote, “Impeccable footwork and his indomitable spirit in adversity made him one of Australia’s true greats.”

Constantine was of the opinion that “McCabe had a great range of strokes, and, though not such a complete master of the balls on the off-stump and just outside as Wally Hammond was, he was very strong at forcing strokes towards the on-side. I remember watching McCabe in a Test hitting across Verity’s leg-break and carting it round to the on-side. Hardly any batsman who has ever lived could have done it; yet McCabe brought stroke after stroke. They all came off, and the result was a spectacular and sparkling innings. If he had missed one of those patient, penetrating balls by the slightest bit of mistiming the result would have been a dismissal that looked terrible - the village blacksmith trying his arts on the past master of English bowling. Success, you see, excuses itself - ‘the head of the table is wherever McGregor sits’.” 

McCabe made 2748 runs in 39 Tests at an average of 48.21 with 6 hundreds, and he scored at a very rapid rate. When he died in 1968 at the age of 58 after falling from a cliff in Sydney, the game lost one of its most popular figures.

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

Don’s Century

Published in India by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Fully illustrated

Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

188 pages

Hundred years on, Bradman’s genius can still inspire. Flashback to birth centenary of Sir Donald Bradman

Article by Indra Vikram Singh published in The Indian Express 
on 27^th August 2008

On Don Bradman’s centenary, a fitting tribute is to assess his real greatness, moving beyond the mountains of statistics and records that are often used to highlight his achievements. Len Hutton wrote in his Fifty Years in Cricket: “It was fashionable to say that The Don was unorthodox, a law unto himself, and that his bat was not as straight as it ought to have been. But his movements were so right and so emphatic. To the straight good-length ball he would either go forward or back with precise judgement, never across the pitch, and at the crucial moment, his bat would be as straight as a Scotch fir.”

KS Duleepsinhji averred in Indian Cricketer Annual 1954: “Will there be another like him? I doubt it. His highly developed cricket sense helped him to make up his mind regarding the stroke in a split second, after the ball left the bowler's hand. With his large repertoire of strokes, he always found gaps in the field. The opponents always found eleven fielders too few. His fast rate of scoring gave bowlers plenty of time to dismiss their opponents. ‘Bradman is batting’ — at those magic words people would rush to the ground.”

Alec Bedser bowled to Bradman only after the war when the great man was past his prime, but still a run-getter beyond compare. He wrote in The Cricketer International: “My one regret was not to see him at his peak when, as the great Test umpire Frank Chester told me, fielders were wont to whistle with astonishment at the sheer brilliance and audacity of his stroke-play. One of his striking attributes was the way he made full use of the space from the popping crease to the stumps.”

Even during the Bodyline series when Bradman’s average ‘plummeted’ to 56.57, it was still the best for Australia, and second only to England's Eddie Paynter’s 61.33 who had two not outs in five innings. And Bradman scored at almost 40 runs an hour, hitting a hundred in one Test and half-centuries in the other three. Stan McCabe might have been the more aesthetic while dealing with the scourge of Bodyline, but Bradman was as effective, and certainly more prolific and consistent.

To dub The Don as merely a run-machine is simplistic because machines do not have minds. Among Bradman's several attributes was a very strong mind. In the 1936-37 Ashes series he was returning to the Test arena after a near-death experience, at the helm of a weak team that had lost several stalwarts. And England won the first two Tests. For most others it would have been too much to endure. But The Don did something, well, Bradmanesque. He scored 270, 212 and 169 in the remaining three Tests, winning all of them and retaining the crown. Nothing daunted him, and his story is so hugely inspirational as much for the massive odds he battled so successfully, as for the phenomenal number of runs he made.

Or let us fast forward to 1946-47, to the first series after the war. Unwell and ageing, he carved out 187 and 234 in the first two Tests, winning both, establishing ascendancy and breaking the English back. Maybe we can rewind to 1934, the first series after the Bodyline mayhem. Bradman was not in good health. He still got his customary double century in the opening match. Then, after a lean run in the first three Tests and the series precariously placed at 1-1, The Don scored 304 and 244 in the last two Tests, winning the final one and wresting the Ashes. That was character, a very tough mind and great skill, something far beyond the capability of any machine ever invented.

What was that one quality that made Don Bradman such a champion. The one most qualified to shed light was his wife Jessie: “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. Let that remain the last word.

(Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’ was written in the year of Sir Donald Bradman’s centenary).

Don's Century
Published in India by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Fully illustrated

Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

188 pages

The legendary writer Neville Cardus’ comments on some great cricketers

Sir Neville Cardus (1888-1975) was a famous English cricket writer, music critic and long-timecorrespondent of The Manchester Guardian. His comments on some great cricketers make interesting reading.

On W.G. Grace and K.S. Ranjitsinhji, in his book Good Days (1934): “In the ‘nineties the game was absolutely English; it was even Victorian. W.G. Grace for years had stamped on cricket the English mark and the mark of the period. It was the age of simple first principles, of the stout respectability of the straight bat and the good-length balls. 

And then suddenly this visitation of dusky, supple legerdemain happened; a man was seen playing cricket as nobody in England could possibly have played it. The honest length ball was not met by the honest straight bat, but there was a flick of the wrist, and lo! The straight ball was charmed away to the leg-boundary. And nobody quite saw or understood how it all happened.”

On Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney  and Don Bradman: “Macartney, perfect of technique, none the less used his bat with an unmistakable pugnacity. He was less courtly in his stroke-play than Trumper, whose masterful innings had a certain effortless charm. Sir Donald Bradman annihilated all bowlers as though he was just performing the day’s work with a deadly efficiency. Macartney slaughtered bowling quite rapaciously. If he was obliged to bat through a maiden over he looked annoyed with himself at the end of it; and he would gnaw his glove. His forearms were formidably strong, his chin was aggressive and his eyes perpetually alive. They looked you in the face; they looked the best bowlers in the world in the face. Macartney employed a defensive stroke as a last resort. Nothing could daunt him. Before the start of a Lord’s Test match he came down to breakfast in a London hotel, looking through the window at the June sunshine and said:- ‘Lovely day, Cripes, I feel sorry for any poor cove who’s got to bowl at me today’.”

On Don Bradman’s 334 in the Leeds Test of 1930, in his book Play Resumed with Cardus: “At Leeds Bradman announced his rights to mastership in a few swift moments. He made 72 runs in his first hour at the wicket, giving to us every bit of cricket excepting the leg-glance. Every fine point of batsmanship was to be admired; strokes powerful and swift and accurate and handsome; variety of craft controlled with singleness of mind and purpose. Bradman was as determined to take no risks, as was to hit boundaries from every ball the least loose. And his technique is so extensive and practised that he can get runs at the rate of 50 an hour, without once needing to venture romantically into the realms of the speculative or the empirical.”

On Don Bradman: “People say ‘Oh, but he hasn’t the charm of McCabe, or the mercury of MacCartney, or the dignity of Hammond’; the objection is a little unintelligent, as though a lion was criticized for lacking the delicacy of the gazelle, the worrying tenacity of the terrier and the disdainful elegance of a swan or a camel.”

On Don Bradman: “Bradman’s achievements stagger the imagination. No writer of boys’ fiction would dare to invent a hero who performed with Bradman’s continual consistency. His batsmanship delights one’s knowledge of the game, his every stroke is a dazzling and precious stone in the game’s crown.”

On Gary Sobers: “He makes a stroke with moments to spare. The sure sign of mastery, of genius of any order, is absence of strain, natural freedom of rhythm.”

(These comments are reproduced in Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’, written in the centenary year of Sir Donald Bradman, celebrating his life and cricket career, and also presenting a panorama of batting from the 1860s to present times).  

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0, Fully Illustrated

French Fold 21.5 cm x 28 cm, 188 Pages

Price Rupees 995

Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

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