Cricket Statues around the World

[SJS]

A lot of cricket statues have come up around the world in memories of the greats of the game. My two personal favourites are WG's at the Lord's as he goes on to the front foot gently working the ball to the leg side and the Don's massively powerful drive to/over the straightfield at Adelaide.

I am starting with the pictures of the Bradman statue at Adelaide since I consider it the finest statue in the game.

This first one is a long shot and gives no idea of the beauty of the statue and is more for the background. It doesn't even whet the appetite

 

[SJS]

This one is much better but I am not very fond of the photographers use of the roses in the foreground. The power in the shot and the statue doesn't come out and the Don looks even smaller in stature than he was physically at least.

 

[SJS]

This one is very good because it has a feeling of the Don actually being on a cricket field. Its sad that his feet are partially cut off. I suspect the photographer was trying to hide the concrete of the pedestal.

 

[SJS]

This one is very good. Very powerful feel to the shot and the bronze loks great. Wish the picture, at the top did not end just at the bat tip. Another two inches of the sky and it would have looked great.

One can trim a bit of the pedestal from below.

 

[SJS]

Then there is this, probably the best of the lot.

 

[SJS]

I am also very fond of this one. The angle and closeness of the lens to the statue and as taken from a lower perspective, it makes it look as if it has been hit over the fence.

Really nice picture.

 

[SJS]

Finally there is this one. It lacks depth.

 

[SJS]

I am sure thousands of people visit this statue every year. Some like the photographers who took these pictures are clearly lovers of the game. There are others who also visit and take pictures to come back and show to thier family, Look, honey, I was there!" Many of them are also idiots. Here is one who inspite af all the trouble he took to get the bat and the pads and the gloves (maybe he even put on a box) had no idea what the Don was doing obvioulsy.

Have a look at this amazing 'shot' completely ruined by this blubber of an idiot

 

[SJS]

2. Bradman at Bowral

Many years ago I visited the Bowral Museum but the Bradman statue hadn't come up then. Now it has. A bronze of the great man acknowledging the cheers of the crowds after another hundred or a double or maybe a triple... who knows

Here it is.

PS : The last one was taken for some "Breast Cancer Awareness" function but I do wish they had not put those pink pads on him.

 

[SJS]

The third Bradman Statue is the one at the MCG. For one that acknowledes the 'applause' of the crowds, this one is far superor to the one at the Bowral with the bat raised but most importantly Bradman has a lovely smile on his face. The one at Bowral looks strained (the expression).

3. Bradman at the MCG

 

[SJS]

While at MCG, there is a very interesting statue of Ponsford there which shows him after he has played a square or a back cut and his left hand has come off the bat even as he follows the ball racing to the fence.

4. Ponsford at the MCG

 

[SJS]

By the way, I saw a lovely, though small, image of the Adelaide statue at night.

Bradman in a night game

 

[SJS]

And another even more pretty

 

[SJS]

Now coming to my second favourite cricket statue

WG at Lord's

I am afraid there aren't any great pictures available on the net of this statue but the statue itself is so perfect that you cant hepl admiring it even in these modest photographs.

 

[SJS]

Another statue I simply love is of Benaud at the SCG, The bowler, collars up as usual, has the ball in his right hand and is signaling one of the off side fielders (perhaps a gully or a short cover) to move a bit.

Its a wonderful study and would make a great picture. I am not sure if it is kept in a great location/surrounding though.

6. Richie Benaud at the SCG

 

[SJS]

Incidentally, in Australia is also one of cricket's ugliest statues. Woodful at Cootamundra. At least I think it is Woodful. Maybe someone who lives in the vicinity can confirm.

 

[SJS]

West Indies is a land of great and elegant as well as explosive stroke players but I am afraid they dont do great statues. The one of Sobers is one of the better ones.

7. Sobers at Kensington Oval

 

[SJS]

If you did not read the plaque and ignored the pull over, this could be a communist leader from Asia - not Worrell in Barbados

I am amazed that a cricketer so graceful in all he did on the field did not have an 'action statue'

 

[SJS]

Another statue that does absolutely no justice to the falmboyant and explosive cricketer it represents in that of Keith Miller at the MCG.

 

[SJS]

There aren't many bowlers who have statues erected to them (both Miller and Benaud being all rounders). Thus Larwood's graceful statue at Kirkby-in-Ashfield, in Nottinghamshire is one lovely exception. The effortlessness of the beautiful action with which he hurled down thunderbolts is perfectly captured.

Larwood at Kirkby-in-Ashfield