What Bradman's birthday means to the Indian cricket fan
Sir Donald Bradman turns 92 today
Partab Ramchand
27-Aug-2000
Sir Donald Bradman turns 92 today. He was 92 not out innumerable times
during his playing career and today he is unbeaten on 92 in life.
Bradman was never out in the 90s during his 80 innings in Test
cricket, a tribute to his unique skill and temparament. Whenever he
got to 90, a hundred was taken for granted. Will Bradman perform the
same feat in real life too?
During his playing days, Bradman's fan mail was unprecedented. Letters
with just part of his face visible and marked `playing somewhere in
England' reached him. Another letter just marked `To Don Bradman,
Australia - please help me. I don't know the address' also reached its
destination. The fan mail continued even after his playing days were
over and continue till today, 52 years after he played his last Test.
Much of the fan mail emanates from India, a country in which he enjoys
fanatical following. Keeping in mind the fact that numerically -
because of the country's population - Indian cricket fans are the
biggest in the world, it is fair to assume that the majority of the
fan mail for Bradman will be from the sub continent.
Bradman's cricketing contacts with India are rather limited. He played
in only one series against an Indian team in 1947-48. He spent perhaps
only a few hours in India when he made a stop over with Lady Bradman
in Calcutta in the mid fifties. But his deeds are well known and he
maintains the super celebrity status he enjoys in every other major
cricketing country.
Bradman on his part has always had a soft corner for India and
cricketers from this land. In his autobiography `Farewell to cricket'
he says that the series against India was one of the most enjoyable in
his career and a wonderful spirit of camaraderie existed between
players of both sides. He also pays handsome tribute to players like
Amarnath, Hazare, Phadkar and Mankad. In 1985-86, while presenting
Sunil Gavaskar with a memento, he described the Indian batting maestro
as an ornament to the game. And only a few years ago, he described
Sachin Tendulkar as the one whose playing style and approach closely
resembled his.
Any news about Bradman even now is reported faithfully and featured
prominently in the Indian media - even the recent unhappy events where
there have been a couple of controversies about using his name. When
Bradman turned 90 two years ago, newspapers and magazines in this
country highlighted the event prominently with special articles and
features. When a news agency put out a story on August 14, 1998 that
it was fifty years since Bradman's last innings in Test cricket - his
famous last duck at the Oval - publications across the country again
carried it prominently. Bradman has guarded his private life carefully
and has not been known to give interviews. And so when two young
intrepid journalists from Calcutta, Debashish Dutta and Gautam
Bhattacharya finally made it to the great man's home in Adelaide and
interviewed him around a decade ago, it became an Indian media event.
Some of the most profound things said and written about Bradman have
been made by Indians. And perhaps the most significant of them has
been the remark of Gavaskar. Congratulated on his record 30th century
at Madras in December 1983, when he surpassed Bradman's long standing
mark of 29 hundreds in Test cricket, Gavaskar was quick to shrug off
the `record' tag. ``Bradman's tally is still the record. It will only
be surpassed if a batsman gets 30 hundreds in 52 Tests,'' was the gist
of what the Indian batsman said. Incidentally, Gavaskar got his 30th
hundred in his 99th Test and that was why he wanted to set the
`record' straight.