Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 11 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (11. George Headley)

While Bradman was making waves in Australia, George Headley burst on the scene on the other side of the world, in Jamaica. He came to be known as the ‘Black Bradman’. His is quite a remarkable saga. Bradman apart, only three men have averaged sixty in a complete Test career of reasonable duration - South African southpaw Graeme Pollock 60.97, Headley 60.83 and Herbert Sutcliffe 60.73. Michael Hussey appears to be positioning himself between Bradman and these luminaries, but his average dipped to just above 51. Headley’s achievements are all the more creditable because West Indies then were only taking their first tentative steps in the Test arena. About nine months younger than Bradman, Headley made a more dramatic entry in Test cricket, hitting 176 in the second innings of his debut Test against England at Bridgetown in 1929-30. He relished English bowling, cracking a hundred in each innings, 114 and 112, of his third Test at Georgetown in the team’s maiden triumph, and a double century, 223, in his fourth Test, on home turf at Kingston. The colonial masters were humbled, returning with the four-Test series drawn 1-1. It was a tremendous initiation at the highest level, 703 runs at an average of 87.87. No wonder the happy people of sunny Caribbean called Bradman the ‘White Headley’.

In the testing 1930-31 tour Down Under, Headley notched up hundreds in the Brisbane and Sydney Tests, encountering Bradman for the only time in his career. Bradman himself scored 223 at Brisbane. Headley continued to flay England’s bowlers. A big hundred - 169 not out - at Old Trafford in the 1933 series was followed by his top score of 270 not out, inevitably at Kingston, in 1934. For the second time in Tests, Headley hit a century in each innings, 106 and 107, this time in the hallowed arena of Lord’s in 1939. Len Hutton was an unabashed admirer  of Headley, as he wrote in his Fifty Years in Cricket: “Headley rightly had a devoted following. No one admired him more than I did, as I fielded at Lord’s in 1939 when he scored faultless centuries in both innings on a losing side. For years he WAS the West Indies batting, and he has to be mentioned in the same breath as Bradman (the ‘white Headley’ according to Jamaicans), Hammond and Hobbs. Clarrie Grimmett described him as ‘the greatest on-side player ever’. (He was) one of cricket’s master batsmen who had never failed in a series between 1929 and 1939 and, as a scorer, was second only to Bradman.”

Just before the Second World War broke out, Headley had scored 2135 runs at an average of 66.71 in 19 Tests. Thereafter he played one Test in each of three different series upto 1953, managing only another 55 runs.

Upto the war, rarely has a team depended so much on one batsman as the West Indies did on Headley. He scored a quarter of their runs, two per cent more than Bradman did for Australia. Strong on the back foot, he relished hitting past mid-on and handled the bad wickets deftly. He brought fresh fragrance of Caribbean flair to the international game, a pioneer in the long line of inherently gifted batsmen from those distant pristine islands.

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

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 10 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (10. Stan McCabe)

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 rungetting of Bradman and Ponsford.

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 70 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.”

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.

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).

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 9 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (9. Don Bradman)

('Don's Century' is a book on the cricket career and life of Don Bradman, paying tribute to him in 2008, the year of his birth centenary. It is also a panorama of batting from the 1860s onwards featuring 35 of the greatest batsmen and discussing whether Don Bradman was indeed the greatest of them all).

Len Hutton himself wrote at length about Bradman. He described his wide-eyed admiration when as a boy he saw The Don score his triple century in a day at Leeds in 1930. Later he wrote in his Fifty Years in Cricket: “During his first visit to England in 1930 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. A genius to confound all theory, but not one to copy. Yet from Headingley onwards, and certainly later when I was better able to judge, I never saw any part of his technique which could not serve as a model for any batsman from school age upwards. 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.”

Someone who played against Bradman at his zenith in 1930, and then watched him through his career, K.S. Duleepsinhji, summed up his batting in Indian Cricketer Annual 1954: “Will there be another like him? I doubt it - in our life time. They come so rarely. What is the secret of his success? Cricket sense, extra quickness of eye, footwork, suppleness of wrist, looseness of shoulders and correct timing. 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. Bradman was seldom at fault in judging the correct position to play the stroke he intended to play. The suppleness of wrists, looseness of shoulders and correct timing gave his strokes the great speed with which he dispatched the ball to all corners of the field. The hook shots, square-cuts, leg-glides off the balls on the leg-stump and pushes to the on off balls on the wicket which he could execute with safety were due to the combination of the above gifts. With his large repertoire of strokes, he always found gaps in the field. The opponents always found eleven fielders too few.”

On Bradman’s impact on the game, Duleepsinhji reflected, “Bradman during his career caught the imagination of the public as only three others - W.G. Grace, Ranji and Victor Trumper - succeeded in doing in the past. Where W.G. Grace reeled off centuries, Bradman reeled off two and even three hundreds. Nearly every batting record was smashed. Huge scores came off the modern factories with Bill Ponsford setting the target. Where Ponsford left off, Bradman took up. Totals of four hundred were considered not only safe but match-winning in four-day Tests in England up to 1930 when Bradman first came to England. How quickly that summer we had to change our ideas, as Bradman began to reel off double centuries and once 309 in one day! No other country could produce a cricketer to match not only his big scores, but the fast rate of his scoring which gave his bowlers plenty of time to dismiss their opponents. ‘Bradman is batting’ - at those magic words people would rush to the ground. More than once I noticed in Australia that if Bradman was not out at lunch, five to ten thousand extra spectators would be on the ground when the game was resumed.”

Alec Bedser, who dismissed Bradman six times in Test matches, bowled to him only after the war when the great man was past his prime, but still a rungetter beyond compare. He wrote in the April 2001 issue of The Cricketer International: “My one regret was not to see him at his peak when, as the great Test umpire Frank Chester told me, Bradman had to be seen to be believed. Fielders were wont to whistle with astonishment at the sheer brilliance and audacity of his stroke-play.”

“One of his striking attributes,” added Bedser, “was the way he made full use of the space from the popping crease to the stumps. At times when he played back he almost trod on his wicket. When executing his deadly pull shot there were two distinct movements: his right foot moved to outside the off-stump and his left foot would move across to end in a perfect position to hit the ball on the ground. It goes without saying that he kept his head perfectly still and appeared to pick the length of the ball quicker than anyone else I was pitted against. To add to his abundant gifts was a nerve that did not know the meaning of the word temperament.” And that, one may repeat, was in the twilight of Bradman’s career.

For a true understanding of the Bradman phenomenon, it would be prudent to go back to the First World War. Before 1914 England fielded their best team only at home, where they won nine of the thirteen series. Australia’s four triumphs were only by the odd game. In Australia, despite the depleted English touring teams, the honours were even. England were the dominant force until then.

The war changed it all. As Peter Hartland wrote in The Balance of Power in Test Cricket 1877-1998, “The war had claimed not only a million lives from the British Empire, but also much of the energy, confidence and optimism of the period before. In 1921 people were already looking back to a Golden Age which could never return. They still are.”

Warwick Armstrong’s team whitewashed England in Australia in the first series after the war in 1920-21, but what the English could not reconcile to was the three straight defeats at home in 1921, before the last two Tests were drawn. On that tour, for the first time since Test cricket began, Armstrong used a tactic which since then became routine: opening at both ends with fast bowlers. His pacemen Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald settled the issue for the all-conquering team.

There was further humiliation for the English when Arthur Gilligan’s 1924-25 touring side was trounced 4-1 by the Australians, now led by Herbie Collins. Just as the sun had begun to set on the British Empire, so also was their pre-eminence on the cricket field coming to an end. England were no longer the paramount power in cricket either.    

The other feature was that advance in technology had put heavy rollers and mowing machines in the hands of groundsmen, producing wickets that were over-prepared, perfect for batting and not liable to deteriorate. Australian tracks were rock hard with scarcely a blade of grass, which would remove the shine off the ball very quickly. For three decades upto around 1950, batsmen revelled on these pitches. It was a period of high scoring when all but the best bowlers were rendered innocuous. Only when it rained, could they exact retribution on the uncovered surfaces. Before the war three days of fair weather were adequate to produce a result in a Test match. By 1930, the increasing number of high scoring draws caused the duration of Tests to be increased to four days in England, with the last Test played to a finish if the series was undecided at that stage. In Australia, all Tests continued to be played to a finish.

Bradman was brought up on wickets he could trust, and that bred confidence. This is what Len Hutton emphasised, “Bradman had the considerable advantage of learning his cricket on matting surfaces with a concrete base, and later to play on bulli surfaces.” Duleepsinhji elaborated the point: “Bradman as a rungetter on a good wicket had no superior. But he never made an effort to master the difficult technique which is required to play on a sticky wicket. I can only guess the reasons. Owing to the practice of covering wickets (during county matches to cut losses), sticky wickets are rare and Bradman may have come to the conclusion that perhaps no more than five per cent of his innings may be played on sticky or wet wickets. Would it be worth his while to change his style, successful on fast wickets, to suit a small number of innings on wet wickets? The change in technique may easily reduce his phenomenal run-getting powers on hard wickets. Taking some such argument into consideration, he must have decided not to worry about a few failures on wet or sticky wickets and keep to the technique which had brought such rich dividends on hard wickets.”

The argument against Bradman was indeed that he was not as good a player on nasty pitches as Trumper or Hobbs were. It was also contended that he did not face much of genuinely fast and hostile bowling as batsmen of the 1970s and 1980s did. Peter Hartland was of the view that, “Whenever he did face it, notably during the Bodyline series, he did not handle it as well as McCabe, nor as imperiously as Viv Richards has done in more recent times.” It was even suggested that Bradman was not as far superior to his contemporaries as W.G. Grace was at his peak.

It can be nobody’s case that Bradman’s technique was ideal for any kind of wicket. That honour can be taken by ‘the original master’ Jack Hobbs and ‘the little master’ Sunil Gavaskar. In this category one could also include two other fine opening batsmen, the Yorkshire technician Len Hutton and the first ‘little master’ Hanif Mohammad of Pakistan.

Yet one look at the scorebooks, rate of scoring, and the combined effect of the two on results of matches and series, only emphasises the point that such an argument can at best be academic. To turn Wilfred Rhodes’ argument around - Hobbs averaged 56.94, Bradman 99.94! Sir 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.” Raymond Robertson-Glasgow had this to say, “About his batting, there was no style for style’s sake. His aim was the making of runs, and he made them in staggering and ceaseless profusion.”

Those who point at Bodyline, and how Bradman’s average ‘plummeted’ to 56.57, it may be said that it was the least he averaged in any Test series, but it was still by far the best for Australia, and second only to England’s Eddie Paynter’s 61.33 with two not outs in five innings. It must also not be forgotten that even in that series Bradman scored at almost 40 runs an hour, and 3.7 runs per over, scoring a hundred in one Test and half-centuries in the other three. McCabe might have been the more aesthetic while dealing with the scourge of Bodyline, but Bradman was just as effective, and certainly more prolific and consistent. And it should be noted that Bradman’s worst series, in trying circumstances, was equal to what was normal for Hobbs and every other great. This fuss over technique is purely theoretical. It reminds one of a case of recent times when Sanjay Manjrekar got so obsessed with technique that he forgot that what mattered more was the number of runs on the board, Geoff Boycott had a similar fetish and even made himself unavailable for Tests to iron out certain flaws in his play, ruthlessly exposed by the gentle left-arm slow-medium lollies of Eknath Solkar.

Technique was what the MCC coaching manual professed. Yet how many batsmen attain copybook perfection, or even excellence. Vivian Richards did not, neither did Brian Lara, but they were certainly far better batsmen than Geoff Boycott and Sanjay Manjrekar, and more exhilarating by miles. Why, even the technically challenged Virender Sehwag has a far better output, two Test triple hundreds and an average over 50 in Tests.

Further, what about those batsmen who commit the sacrilege of playing the upper cut, or under cut if you prefer to call it that, the lap shot or the reverse sweep. These shots have been developed, and played expertly, in modern cricket to dominate bowlers and counter their ploys.

There is no such thing as perfect technique. A good batsman’s technique varies with the conditions, and no two batsmen have identical techniques. A technique is like one’s fingerprint, patently one’s own, that complements one’s natural ability to produce the best possible results. That is what Bradman did and it yielded results like nothing seen before, or since. He was, as Raymond Robertson-Glasgow put it, “The rarest of Nature’s creatures, an artist without the handicap of the artistic temperament, a genius with an eye for business.”

Bradman would sometimes say that just as Walter Lindrum needed good billiards tables to make his biggest breaks, so do good batsmen need good wickets to put up big scores. If the wickets were flat, they were so for everyone, not Bradman alone. They certainly produced higher averages - men like Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hammond, Headley and Hutton averaged between 56 and 61. Bradman averaged nearly 100. This was the single-most important factor in the regaining of the Ashes in 1930, and the dominance of Australia after the Bodyline series till the end of Bradman’s career in 1948.

Why only technique, let’s talk about grace as well. Mark Waugh was arguably the most elegant batsman in history, and a top quality Test player. But it was his twin Steve, functional, even ungainly at times, who was the more effective and successful, a folk hero. In textbooks, verse or  canvas, Hobbs and Mark Waugh may, for some, be the best batsmen. At the crease it would have to be Bradman. Ian Peebles once wrote in The Cricketer International: “A first impression of Bradman was one of great speed of action. This was epitomised in the extraordinary rapidity of his advance to the pitch off slow bowlers. The move would be made late in the flight of the ball but was firm and unhesitant and the feet twinkled. These qualities characterised the whole performance. It was not the graceful flow of Woolley or Hobbs, but a sure, crisp and above all commanding exercise.”

Was W.G. Grace better? Certainly, for a period between 1864 and 1873 at his very best, he was reckoned to be twice as good as the next man. That, though, was only in first-class cricket in England, in the pre-Test match era. Later too he was one of the best, if not no. 1, of his times, and he batted on wickets that even club players would recoil from today.  But those were the conditions then, and he coped with them, just like men rode horses over mountains and meadows before the age of automobiles that roll on roads of tarmac; and wrote letters with pen and paper before the invention of e-mail.

There is no ambiguity over the fact that right through his career, Bradman was nearly twice as good as anyone else in Test matches as well as in first-class cricket, in youth and in middle-age, on the hard bouncy wickets at home, and the swinging and seaming conditions of England. The searing pace of Larwood and Voce, the testing fast-medium wiles of Maurice Tate and Alec Bedser, and the guile of top-quality spinners like Hedley Verity, Jim Laker and Vinoo Mankad came alike to him. True, he batted a bit differently. Perhaps that is why he also got far superior results. As Sir Pelham Warner, who in 1937 became the first cricketer to be knighted, once quipped, “I believe Bradman would make a hundred in a blackout.”

He flayed not only English bowlers, but also those of the West Indies, South Africa and India. There is nothing to suggest that he may not have scored as heavily had he played in these countries too. For all we know Bradman might have been even more unfettered, as Lala Amarnath averred. To dub The Don as merely a run-machine is simplistic for the simple reason that machines do not have minds. They are switched on, and they do their job efficiently. That’s it. Among Bradman’s several attributes was a very strong mind. Cast your own mind back to the 1936-37 Ashes series at home. He was returning to the Test arena after a near-death experience. He had just been appointed captain of a weak team that had lost several stalwarts of the past decade. 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. That for me sums up Bradman, not just a run-machine, but the best batsman ever in every conceivable way. 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 at bit further, to 1934. This was the first series after the Bodyline mayhem. The Ashes had to be reclaimed and Bradman was not in good health. He still got his customary double century in the opening match against Worcestershire. Then, after having a lean run in the first three Tests and with the series precariously placed at 1-1, The Don scored 304 and 244 in the last two Tests, crucially 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. C.L.R. James put it succinctly, “The one thing that strikes me - and I have seen Sir Donald play many times and make many hundreds of runs - is the scientific, systematic manner in which he analyses the danger.” 

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.” Ray Robinson referred to Bradman's "knack of stopping bowlers from bowling well".

“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).

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 8 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (8. Wally Hammond)

Almost through his Test career, Bradman’s great English rival was Walter Hammond. Wyatt in one of his letters to me wrote, “Hammond I put down as the greatest player on the off-side.” In Bradman’s debut series in 1928-29, Hammond struck a record 905 runs in the five Tests at an average of 113.12. When the two teams met again in 1930, Bradman not only logged up 974 runs, a mark never to be beaten, averaging 139.14, but also hit up the highest Test score of 334 at Leeds.

Hammond then took away the Test record with his unbeaten 336 against New Zealand at Auckland just after the Bodyline series in 1932-33. New Zealand were a very weak side then and many did not give much credence to this record, rating only the Ashes clashes as the real contests. So when Len Hutton took the record at the Oval in 1938, some were still under the impression that he had surpassed Bradman’s Test best. This illusion came into sharper focus as Bradman was the first to congratulate Hutton on achieving the feat. Nevertheless, Hammond had the highest score in Tests, and went on to become the leading rungetter at that level with 7249 runs at an average of 58.45 until Colin Cowdrey and Gary Sobers set new marks in the 1970s.

Hammond, though, could never emulate Bradman’s prolific rungetting - nobody could - a fact he was quick to acknowledge. Hammond has often been described as a majestic batsman. He would, however, be tied down by the great leg-spinners Bill O’Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, particularly on the leg-stump. E.W. Swanton also observed his difficulty against fast bowling, pointing to his lacklustre show against the West Indies. In fact Manny Martindale, Learie Constantine’s fearsome new-ball partner, split open his chin at Old Trafford in 1933.  Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas was similarly brilliant on the off-side in another era, one of the finest drivers off the back foot and very stylish. He also had his problems against genuine fast bowling, but revelled in English conditions. What can never be disputed is the fact that Hammond was England’s mainstay for the best part of a decade.

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

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 7 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (7. Bill Ponsford)

Such was the batting legacy that Bradman inherited. While he was busy making the grade, Bill Ponsford was fast becoming Australia’s answer to W.G. Grace in his penchant for tall scores in first-class cricket. Playing some defining innings for Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Ponsford hit up a record 429 against Tasmania in 1922-23, overhauling Lancastrian Archie MacLaren’s 424 versus Somerset at Taunton in 1895, the only quadruple hundred of the 19^th century. MacLaren had in turn surpassed Grace’s record of 344 for MCC against Kent at Canterbury in 1876.

Ponsford then reeled off 352 - 334 in a day - against New South Wales in 1926-27, and 437 and 336 versus Queensland and South Australia respectively the following season. Ponsford was the only player to score two quadruple centuries until Brian Lara scored 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994, and 400 not out in the Antigua Test against England in 2004.

Bradman served notice with his undefeated 340 for New South Wales in 1928-29, having already scored a century on first-class debut the previous season. Then in 1929-30, Bradman broke Ponsford’s record with his 452 not out against Queensland at Sydney.

Having scored hundreds in his first two Tests in 1924-25 against England, Ponsford later combined with Bradman in two record partnerships in consecutive Tests - 388 for the fourth wicket at Leeds, and 451 for the second wicket at The Oval in 1934. It was a summer in which Ponsford had a Bradmanesque average of 94.83, having scored 569 runs in 4 Tests. Bradman aggregated 758 runs in 5 Tests at an average of 94.75.

One has then, not surprisingly, come across several references to Bob Wyatt’s famous remark describing Ponsford as “A very great player indeed.” This was during the Lord’s Centenary match in 1980 when Ponsford walked across the former players’ enclosure. Len Hutton recalled the incident, as did Alec Bedser, and both wondered how great, then, was Bradman.

Ponsford would indeed be rated very high for his monumental first-class scores, his record Test partnerships with Bradman and brilliant series in 1934. But he had his problems with pace, surprising for an opening batsman. As Hartland noted: “Ponsford possessed a similarly insatiable appetite for big scores, once recording 2183 runs in thirteen consecutive first-class innings at an average of 167, but also a weakness against the fastest bowling, ruthlessly exploited by Larwood.” That would go against Ponsford being rated alongside the true greats despite Wyatt’s generous off-the-cuff remark. Indeed, Ponsford floundered in the Bodyline series, though he did score a brave 85 in the infamous Adelaide Test after Woodfull and Oldfield had been hit.

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

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 6 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (6. Charles Macartney)

The diminutive Charles Macartney was a slow left-arm bowler before he developed into an awesome strokeplayer. Jack Fingleton explained that Macartney was known as ‘Governor General’ because of the “manner in which he lorded the cricket field, entering it like one about to inspect the ranks, throwing challenges and exuding domination, dismissing bowlers from the crease as an official G.G. would dismiss footmen from his presence when their duty was done.”

In his first tour of England in 1909, Macartney bagged eleven wickets for 85, including seven for 58 in the first innings at Leeds, a venue he came to revel in, as did Bradman later, helping Australia win the Test. When he returned to England in 1912 for the Triangular Test tournament, with South Africa as the third side, his batting prowess had already come to the fore. He rattled up six first-class hundreds, including a double century against Essex.

After the War Macartney came into his own as a batsman. Neville Cardus observed, “He was less courtly in his stroke-play than Trumper, whose masterful innings had a certain effortless charm. Macartney, perfect of technique, none the less used his bat with an unmistakable pugnacity. 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’.”

It was at Sydney that Macartney made his highest Test score of 170 against England in 1920-21, when a young boy named Don Bradman was an avid spectator. Soon thereafter in the English summer of 1921, his 115 helped Warwick Armstrong’s famous side win the Leeds Test. But his most enthralling, and highest, innings came against Nottinghamshire during that tour when he crashed 345 in less than four hours with 47 fours and 4 sixes. It was the highest score for any Australian batsman touring England, and the maximum runs scored in a day anywhere until Brian Lara scored 390 on his way to a record-shattering 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Birmingham in 1994.

When Macartney visted Leeds again during his fourth tour of England in 1926, he scored another memorable century. Ken Piesse described that brilliant innings: “Although the wicket was damp from the heavy overnight rain, the sun had not come out, saving the Australians from the dreaded ‘sticky’. Without the sunshine, (Arthur) Carr’s bowlers were not able to make the ball jump or twist, making batting a not-so-difficult duty.” Nevertheless, Maurice Tate had Warren Bardsley, captain in the absence of Herbie Collins, caught by Herbert Sutcliffe with the scoreboard still blank. Macartney walked in, and being the kind of player he was, tended to offer an early chance. And so it turned out. When he was on 2, Macartney flashed at Maurice Tate’s out-swinger, but Carr dropped him at third slip.

From then on there was no stopping Macartney. He wrote in his book My Cricketing Days: “I made up my mind to attack and kept on attacking. I felt like it and as a result I went for everything.” He reached his century before lunch, emulating the singular feat of Trumper, which was replicated by Bradman! At the interval Macartney was on 112, his partner Bill Woodfull 40, and Australia had 153 on the board. Macartney ultimately holed out to deep mid-off for 151, having cracked 21 boundaries in just 172 minutes. His second-wicket stand of 235 with Woodfull was a record.

That was his last Test series, in which he scored 3 hundreds, the others being 133 not out at Lord’s and 109 at Manchester. He passed on the baton to a lad named Donald George Bradman, who was to make his appearance in the very next rubber that Australia played. In 35 Tests Macartney aggregated 2131 runs at an average of 41.78. Peter Hartland noted, “For Macartney dominating the bowler was just as important as making a big score, and he loved to whip straight balls through the leg side. In many ways he was the nearest of old-timers to Vivian Richards.”

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

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 5 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (5. Frank Woolley)

Equally, several people might question why Frank Woolley, with his modest Test record, is spoken of so glowingly. It is perhaps for the same reason as Trumper, for their abundant natural ability and uninhibited strokeplay. They were obviously different. For one, Woolley was a left-hander, He would hit long and straight, while Trumper was more wristy. Later generations who never saw Woolley play get a fair idea of the type of batsman he was from the fact that the golden boy of English cricket of the 1980s, David Gower, is often compared to him for the lazy elegance and nonchalance that characterised their play. So often has it been observed that the abundantly gifted do not achieve the same degree of results as the less endowed, for they do not have to strive as hard at their game, and invariably squander some of the bounty they are blessed with. So it would seem was the case with Woolley, as with Gower. They would exasperate as much as they would delight.

Nonetheless, it must not be forgotten that Woolley remains the second-highest rungetter in first-class cricket after Hobbs, with 58,969 runs at an average of 40.75, having cracked 145 hundreds with a best of 305 not out. Add to this the 2068 wickets at 19.85 apiece and his all-time record of 1018 catches, the only non-wicketkeeper to clutch 1000, and you have truly one of the finest left-handed allrounders that ever graced a cricket field, pun unintended. In all his 28 first-class seasons - interrupted by the First World War - Woolley never failed to reach 1000 runs. Only Grace achieved it as often, but not every time.

The versatile Woolley equalled the then record for six catches in a Test against Australia at Sydney in 1911-12. After the War he stood up manfully to the pace assault of Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald at Lord’s, hitting back with knocks of 95 and 93 even as his colleagues floundered against Warwick Armstrong’s victorious team of 1921.

Having achieved the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in the 1914 season, Woolley repeated the feat over three consecutive seasons from 1921 to 1923. No one else has ever done it so often.

Two of Woolley’s finest knocks in first-class cricket, both for Kent, were 215 against Somerset at Gravesend in 1925 when he clouted 8 sixes, and 229 in three hours versus Surrey at The Oval in 1935 when a straight hit landed in a garden on Harleyford Road. Woolley’s first-class record is remarkably similar to W.G. Grace’s, though it must be conceded that the good doctor played on far worse pitches, particularly in the early part of his career. In 64 Tests Woolley scored 3283 runs at an average of 36.07 and took 83 wickets at 33.91 apiece.

The reasons why Woolley was spoken of in such glowing terms can be found in Raymond Robertson-Glasgow’s words: “Frank Woolley was easy to watch, difficult to bowl to and impossible to write about. When you bowled to him, there weren’t enough fielders, when you wrote about him there weren’t enough words.” Indeed, and mere figures are not enough to unravel the delightful package that was Frank Woolley, a lovely gift wrapped in plain brown paper.

Peter Hartland concluded: “Frank Woolley is still the standard by which elegant left-handers are judged. Many words have been written about the effortless beauty of his play, the long reach and full swing sent the ball skimming to, or over, the boundary. Fast bowlers frequently posted a long-off. Perhaps there was something too loose about his batting - more so even than the man from a later generation most often compared with him, David Gower.” It might also be added that Woolley, it seems, had the mindset of an allrounder, rather than a pure batsman, and that is the context in which he should be viewed.

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