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Cricket has been one of the most famed sports in the world for almost two centuries, exciting fans all across the globe, with plenty of players going on to become legends. When we talk about the best cricketer in the world, there are hundreds of names who can stake a claim to it, but there is no one quite like the former Australian captain Don Bradman.
Born on August 27, 1908, in Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia, Sir Don Bradman was destined to be a cricketer, practising the art of batting incessantly during his early years. He honed his cricketing skills by inventing his own solo cricket game, which involved a stump for a bat and a golf ball, to develop his timing and reactions over time.
During his first-class debut at the age of 19 for New South Wales, Sir Don Bradman scored a hundred at the Adelaide Oval against South Australia. Just a year later, on his international debut for Australia against England in the 1928-29 Ashes first Test at the Exhibition Ground in Brisbane, he scored 18 and 1 in both innings.
He was dropped to the bench for the second Test, but on his Test recall at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne, Sir Don Bradman notched up 79 and 112 to become the youngest centurion in the format at the time. Since then, he never looked back during his Test career, although the English cricket team used the “Bodyline” tactic during the 1932-33 series, which curtailed his rate of scoring a bit.
Although World War I took years off his international career during the 30s and 40s, Sir Don Bradman managed to make his one last return to Test cricket shortly after the tough times were over. During his final Test innings at The Oval in 1949 against England, needing four runs to keep his average in the 100s, he was castled by Eric Hollies for a duck, finishing up with an average of 99.94 in more than 50 Tests.
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During his Test career for Australia spanning more than two decades, Sir Don Bradman got 6.996 runs in 80 innings played across 52 matches with 29 hundreds and 13 fifties. He played 37 of those Test matches against England, while the teams like India, West Indies, and South Africa, he played five Test matches each.
Sir Don Bradman passed away on February 25, 2001, at 92 years of age in Kensington Park, Adelaide, South Australia.
