The
following essay by SJ Southerton appeared in the 1931
edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, when Bradman
was chosen as one of the Five Cricketers of the Year
Following
his success on his first tour of England, in 1930,
Don Bradman was chosen as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers
of the Year in the 1931 Almanack. The other four were
his fellow Australian, Clarrie Grimmett, Bev Lyon
(Gloucestershire), Ian Peebles (Oxford University,
Middlesex and England) and Maurice Turnbull (Glamorgan).
S.J. Southerton was a partner in the Cricket Reporting
Agency, which for many years was responsible for compiling
the Almanack, and he was editor of the 1934 and 1935
editions of Wisden.
Donald
George Bradman, who, coming to England for the first
time met with greater success as a batsman than any
other Australian cricketer who has visited this country,
was born at Cootamundra, a small up-country township
in New South Wales on August 27, 1908. While still
a child he accompanied his parents when they moved
to Bowral, some fifty miles from Sydney. Although
not his birthplace, therefore, Bowral enjoys the distinction
of giving the first insight into the game to a young
man who, at the present moment, is one of the most
remarkable personalities in cricket. When it is considered
that Bradman made his first appearance in a big match
only just over three years ago - to be exact it was
Adelaide in December, 1927 - his rise to the very
top of the tree has been phenomenal. Yet in that particular
encounter, his first for New South Wales in the Sheffield
Shield series of engagements, he showed clearly he
was someone out of the common by scoring 118 and 33.
Later on in that season in Australia he put together
73 against South Australia and not out 134 against
Victoria and those performances stamped him as a future
representative batsman.
Sure enough, he got his place,
in the Australian team a year afterwards when the
MCC side, under A. P. F. Chapman, were in that country.
He did not justify expectations in a Trial match in
October but in the same month he scored 131 and not
out 133 against Queensland. Subsequent scores for
his state included 71 not out against Victoria, 340
not out in the return with Victoria and 175 against
South Australia. Meanwhile, he had secured a place
in the Australia eleven at Brisbane but, dismissed
for scores of 18 and 1, was passed over for the next
Test. It was obvious a bad mistake had been made in
leaving him out and, chosen for the third match at
Melbourne, he put together 79 and 112. At Adelaide
in the Fourth Test, in which England were successful
by 12 runs, he scored 40 and 58, being run out in
the second innings when he and Oldfield looked like
winning the match for Australia, while in the concluding
Test Match - the only one in which Australia was successful
during that tour - he obtained 123 and not out 37,
being in with Ryder at the finish.
By
this time he had, of course, firmly established himself,
and it did not need another even more successful season
in 1929-30 to make his inclusion in the team for England
a certainty. He put together many fine scores in Sheffield
Shield matches and at Sydney in the first week in
January eclipsed everything else by an astonishing
innings of 452 not out for New South Wales against
Queensland. This score - the highest individual ever
hit in first-class cricket - occupied him only 415
minutes and included forty-nine 4s. A month before
this, playing in the Trial match prior to the team
for England being selected, he put together for Woodfull's
Eleven against Ryders' Eleven 124 and 225, while on
the journey to England he hit up 139 against Tasmania.
In Sheffield Shield matches that season he averaged
over 111, or more than twice as many as any other
cricketer in the tournament, with an aggregate of
894 runs.
Already,
therefore, he had in a very short space of time accomplished
wonders, but his triumphs were far from being at an
end, for in England he left further records behind.
In the second innings of his first Test Match in this
country, at Trent Bridge, he made 131, following that
with 254 at Lord's, 334 at Leeds and, after failing
at Manchester, putting together 232 at The Oval. With
his big innings at Leeds he beat the record individual
score in Test Matches between England and Australia
which had stood since 1903-04 to the credit of R.
E. Foster, with 287 at Sydney. Without a not out to
help him, an aggregate of 974 runs in seven innings
gave him an average of over 139 from the five Test
Matches, and in the course of the summer he altogether
played eleven three-figure innings for his side, six
of these being over 200.
Just
as they did during the last tour of the Englishmen
in Australia, so, at the present time, opinions differ
as to the merit of Bradman's abilities, judged purely
from the standpoint of the highest batsmanship. Certain
good judges aver that his footwork is correct; others
contend the reverse is the case. Both are right. For
a fast, true wicket his footwork, if not on quite
such a high plane as that of Charles Macartney, is
wonderfully good. When the ball is turning, however,
there are limitations to Bradman's skill. As was observed
by those who saw him on a turning wicket at Brisbane
and on one nothing like so vicious at Old Trafford
last summer, this young batsman still has something
to learn in the matter of playing a correct offensive
or defensive stroke with the conditions in favour
of the bowler. Still, as a run-getter, he stands alone.
He does not favour the forward method of defence,
much preferring to go halfway or entirely back. His
scoring strokes are many and varied. He can turn to
leg and cut with delightful accuracy, but above all
he is a superb driver. One very pronounced feature
of his batting is that he rarely lifts the ball, and
as he showed English spectators so frequently last
season, and particularly against England at Lord's,
he will send two consecutive and similar deliveries
in different directions. In grace of style, he may
not be a Trumper or a Macartney but his performances
speak for themselves. Over and above his batting,
he is a magnificent field and, like all Australians,
a beautiful thrower. Occasionally, he has met with
success as a bowler, but while his powers as a run-getter
remain with him there is no need for him to cultivate
the other side of the game.
Bradman
first learned his cricket in pick-up matches at the
Bowral Intermediate High School, and when he went
to Sydney, in 1962 at the invitation of the State
Selectors for a practice at the nets he was a somewhat
uncouth, uncultured batsman. Still, he made 37 in
a Trial match and then played in the Southern Districts
country team. He reached first-grade cricket in Sydney
for the St George Club in 1926 and, as has already
been told, proceeded thence into the New South Wales
eleven. After he left school, where he was entirely
self-taught in batting, he played for the Bowral club
and, with scores of 234 and 300, had an aggregate
of 1,318 and an average of 109. In the one match he
played for them in 1926-27 he scored 320 not out.
Not yet twenty-three, Bradman should have years of
cricket in front of him and, judging by what he has
already accomplished, there would seem to be no limit
to his possibilities.
This
essay is reproduced by kind permission of John Wisden
& Co Ltd. It can be read, along with several other
pieces on Bradman, on Wisden's own website: www.wisden.com
