by Jaimela King

Created on: July 09, 2009

Sir Donald George Bradman was born in Cootamundra New South Wales Australia on August 27th 1908. He passed away on the 25thof February 2001 at age 92, but his outstanding record in the game of cricket means that he will always be remembered as the greatest batsman of all time.

The Don, The Boy from Bowral and Braddles were all nicknames of the 5 ft, 7" tall right-handed batsman. His rise to glory on the cricket field was swift and memorable. At age 2 , his family moved to Bowral in New South Wales and his love for cricket was played out in the bushes of Bowral. Before he reached the age of 22, Bradman had already set several records and quickly became the idol of adoring Australian fans. He practiced the art of batting incessantly and invented his own cricket rules to develop his skills.

By the age of twelve, Bradman had hit his first century when he played for his school team in Bowral. When his dad took him to see the Ashes Test Match in Sydney, he declared his determination to play on that ground, (the Sydney Cricket Ground), some day. After leaving school in 1922, he took a job with a Real estate firm, but continued to hone his cricket skills. And while he took a break from cricket for 2 years to play tennis, he returned to the game of cricket that was his first love where he continued to excel.

From 1926 onward, Bradman begun his move into the bigger leagues. He was recruited by the New South Wales Cricket Association which led to an invitation to play for Grade cricketfor St George during the 1926-27 cricket season, making his first century in the big leagues. At age 19, he made his debut in first class cricket at the Adelaide Oval and again scored a hundred. His rapid rise in cricket continued as he made his Test cricket debut in the Australia VS England match on 30thNovember, 1928. He played his last test cricket on august 18th 1948.

By the time he retired from cricket, Bradman had played over 52,000 matches, scored over 50,000 runs, batted 669 innings and attained a test batting average of 99.4. He was high on taking the offensive, and entertaining the fans, always drawing huge numbers of spectators. He even survived the Bodyline., a controversial set of tactics engineered by the English cricket team to curb his scoring. Here are some of the highlights of his career:

1)He was the youngest overseas player to score a double century in England; he scored 236 runs in his first match in England.

2) Bradman scored 131 runs in his first Test match, 254 runs in his second Test match and 334 in his third test match , breaking the world Test batting record

3) He secured 232 runs in his Fifth Test match at Leeds and brought his test aggregate to 974 with a 139.14 average

Bradman was indeed a world class cricketer. He served as team captain, coach and administrator in Australian cricket. As the saying goes; "they don't make them that way anymore". But through all of this he was a reluctant hero, very uncomfortable with the constant adulation he received during the height of his career. He has left the cricket world and his homeland, a treasured legacy in his outstanding record. His work lives on in the Bradman Foundation established for the promotion of cricket and in the Bradman Museum of Cricket in Australia.

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