Don Bradman

Forget the disappointing tour of India, the Ashes (beginning November 25) is the Test series that creates Australian heroes.

Of course, there can be dangers putting cricketers on a pedestal, but there is one idol who has always been seen as above reproach, Don Bradman.

Indeed, Bradman’s aura as a sporting icon became so great that respected cricket writer R.C Robertson-Glasgow wrote: “There are no funny stories about the Don. No one ever laughed about Bradman. He was no laughing matter’‘.

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As Australia’s cricketers started their colossal – and ultimately futile –chase of 546 runs for an Ashes victory at The Oval, it was accepted that the team’s only hope was for someone to play a ‘Bradmanesque’ innings.

Given that it’s more than 60 years since Sir Donald Bradman played his final Test on that same strip of dirt in south London, why is it that his name remains the benchmark against which all cricketers are still measured?

It’s because for more than a century, Test match cricket has seen Don Bradman – born 101 years ago today – separated by a colossal gap from everyone else in the game.

Continue reading "After all these years we’re yet to find another Bradman" »