Sir Donald Bradman

[fredfertang]

I was actually thinking about a hypothetical situation where we can send Smith back in time to the 30's when the packed leg side was allowed. I'd let him carry a helmet though

Would've produced at least one knock like Stan McCabe's 187* at the SCG - greatest Test innings ever, in my admittedly biased opinion anyway

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Some people tend to think that every ball Larwood bowled was some sort of searing unplayable bouncer. He bowled a lot of crap down the leg side that these days would be called wide.

 

[watson]

Thought that this was interesting on Larwood.

10 January 1935

WORLD'S BEST CRICKET XI.

Mailey Leaves Out Grimmett

OPINIONS IN (By "Deepfield")

COULD Grimniett be omitted from a cricket eleven picked :from the world's best players of today? South Australian cricket followers would be unanimious, that he could not, on the grounds that he is the best slow bowler in the world at the moment, but Arthur Mailey, the former Australian-Eleven slow bowler, in Sydney today named a side that he considers to be the best in the world. Here it is:

D. R. Jardine (captain)
W. H. Ponsford
D. G. Bradman
W. B. Hammond
S. J. McCabe
M. Leyland
L. N. Constantine
H. Larwood
W. A. Oldfield
W. J. O'Reilly
L. O. Fleetwood-Smith

While opinions may differ as to the omission of other leading players, the absence of Grirnmett from the list will cause widespread surprise.

CLEM HILL'S VIEWS

Leading South Australians in the cricket world agree that Grimmett would have to be included. The State captain (V. Y. Richardson) is one of these. Grimmett, O'Reilly, and Larwood were the outstanding bowlers at the present time, he said. He could not understand the inclusion of Constantine, the West Indies all-rounder. Clem Hill, the former international left-hand batsman, was surprised at the selection of Jardine as the captain of the side. "The side must be a good one if Grimmett, Verity, and Headley can be left out," he said. "Grimmett is the world's best slow bowler; Verity is the best left-arm bowler in the world; while Headley, the 'Bradman' of the West Indies, is a very fine batsman."

WOULDN'T PICK LARWOOD

On present figures Ernie Jones, the former international fast bowler, considers that Grimmett would have to be included in the team.

"I would not have Larwood in the team," he said. "Unless he used bodyline bowling, he would not get a side out in a week. In addition. I cannot see why Constantine should be included."

Fleetwood-Smith, he considers, is a slow bowler, with a very big future, but at the present time he could not take precedence over Grimmett. "Verity, the best left-arm bowler in the world would have to be included in a world eleven." he said. "There is nothing wrong with the batsmen named, and I consider Jardine the best captain seen in Australia for the past 20 years."


10 Jan 1935 - WORLD'S BEST CRICKET XI. - Trove

 

[Starfighter]

If Jones had bowled with a straight arm he wouldn't have gotten sides out in a week.

 

[watson]

If Jones had bowled with a straight arm he wouldn't have gotten sides out in a week.

I think that Ernie Jones was probably a little jealous of Larwood tbh, or maybe upset that his fastest ever tag had been taken away.

 

[mr_mister]

So funny he threw Clarrie Grimmett under the bus because he thought Fleetwood-Smith was gonna be the next big thing. Dont count ya chickens before they hatch!

Man it's funny how much that article reads like a CW post if we were around in the 1930s. Great find btw

 

[watson]

So funny he threw Clarrie Grimmett under the bus because he thought Fleetwood-Smith was gonna be the next big thing. Dont count ya chickens before they hatch!

Man it's funny how much that article reads like a CW post if we were around in the 1930s. Great find btw

I think that it's a leg-spinner rivalry thing where Mailey was a bit miffed that Grimmett eventually squeezed him out of the Australian team.

 

[The Sean]

So funny he threw Clarrie Grimmett under the bus because he thought Fleetwood-Smith was gonna be the next big thing. Dont count ya chickens before they hatch!

Man it's funny how much that article reads like a CW post if we were around in the 1930s. Great find btw

To be fair, Mailey's not the only person who threw Grimmett under the bus in favour of Fleetwood-Smith...

 

[bagapath]

Bradman played most of his tests against England and averaged 89. Against his other opponents he averaged 140. If he played his test match opponents in the same proportion as modern players his test average would have been well over 100.

Given that India then encompassed Pakistan the only modern test sides not playing in his era were Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Its hard to think which of those teams would have "stopped" him.

Btw tennis was popular in the US and Europe in the eras you talk about, and if anything, Americans (of whom Evert is one) held most tennis records.

India of his era encompassed both Pakistan and Bangladesh. So technically only Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are the teams that were not around.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

India of his era encompassed both Pakistan and Bangladesh. So technically only Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are the teams that were not around.

Australia used to stop off in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) on the way to England. Bradman went there four times but only played twice and made 0 and 20.

 

[G.I.Joe]

I'd be more interested to watch Raina

• Big Nas‏ @NasirJamshed_ 18 May 2014More
  
  
  
  PCB I just write you check for 500,000 rupee. Change your name to Suresh Raina ok. Cos you gonna struggle to cash it. Cos it gonna bounce.
  
  
  6 replies 22 retweets 23 likes
  ​

 

[a massive zebra]

I think that Ernie Jones was probably a little jealous of Larwood tbh, or maybe upset that his fastest ever tag had been taken away.

In contrast to the commonly held modern view that Larwood was the fastest bowler ever to appear up to his time, the consensus among contemporary 1930s cricket pundits and journalists appears to be that Larwood was not the fastest bowler ever.

See my post here.

 

[a massive zebra]

He had none of the attributes we often associate with elite athletes.

What a load of cobblers. Bradman was a brilliant tennis player and may have had the opportunity to turn professional if he had not opted to focus on cricket. He was a brilliant squash player and won the 1939 South Australia squash championship having not played squash for nearly two years until three months before the tournament. He was the best billiards player in the Australian squad during the Ashes tours of 1930, 1934 and 1938. He won multiple sprint races at the Army's School of Physical & Recreational Training at Frankston, Victoria in 1940. He was a superb golfer who shot under par at every major golf course in South Australia and Victoria, and continued to play until he was well into his eighties when he regularly ‘broke his age’.

 

[a massive zebra]

Bradman himself during an interview (might try and find it) admitted that his skill was probably due to spending numerous hours hitting a golf ball with a stump up against a corrigated iron water tank when he was a child.

Do you mean this?

 

[a massive zebra]

Bodyline didn't have any direct effect on Bradman - he could have spent the whole series swaying out of the way and not getting dismissed and ending up with a fat average - the problem was that the other Australian batsmen couldn't handle it, so Bradman had to get on with it and he took plenty of risks - that was the only reason he was reduced to that piss poor average of 56

Absolutely, despite Larwood and co aiming at his body hammer and tongs for the whole series, and with his teammates going down like ninepins, Bradman never got hit on the body once in the whole series. Unbelievable when you think of it!

 

[fredfertang]

Absolutely, despite Larwood and co aiming at his body hammer and tongs for the whole series, and with his teammates going down like ninepins, Bradman never got hit on the body once in the whole series. Unbelievable when you think of it!

Didn't Larwood claim to have hit him once, on the arse, in the final Test?

 

[a massive zebra]

Some people tend to think that every ball Larwood bowled was some sort of searing unplayable bouncer. He bowled a lot of crap down the leg side that these days would be called wide.

If you are going to make sweeping and controversial statements that challenge the generally accepted consensus, you should at least back them up with evidence. Otherwise they simply come across as pure hyperbole. In fact, your comments are in stark contrast to almost everything I have ever read. Here is a quote from Duncan Hamilton's biography of the great fast bowler:

Larwood was accurate. He bowled very few lose deliveries, and so a batsman had to score against him whenever the chance came or become bogged down and impatient as a result. The hook or pull might get him caught in the deep. As the flesh is weak and bones are breakable, choosing to let the ball hit you was about as sensible as diving into an empty swimming pool... Larwood was one of the most talented, accurate and intimidating bowlers of all time.

David Frith's book Bodyline Autopsy includes a photo from a 1930s newspaper article with a caption as follows: "FACING HAROLD LARWOOD'S ACCURATE EXPRESS BOWLING TRANSFORMED MANY A BATSMAN INTO A CHICKEN"

Plenty of contemporary articles made reference to Larwood's great accuracy. For instance:

Larwood Too Fast and Accurate for Australians.
Larwood Bowls Spendidly: ACCURATE AND DEADLY.
Larwood "Too Accurate For Australians".

So where is your evidence? Or are you just sturring?

 

[Gob]

What a load of cobblers. Bradman was a brilliant tennis player and may have had the opportunity to turn professional if he had not opted to focus on cricket. He was a brilliant squash player and won the 1939 South Australia squash championship having not played squash for nearly two years until three months before the tournament. He was the best billiards player in the Australian squad during the Ashes tours of 1930, 1934 and 1938. He won multiple sprint races at the Army's School of Physical & Recreational Training at Frankston, Victoria in 1940. He played golf from a young age until he was well into his eighties when he regularly ‘broke his age’.

This reminds me of that AB DeVilliers fake resume

 

[a massive zebra]

This reminds me of that AB DeVilliers fake resume

Except in this case its not fake. Reference to all the above sporting accomplishments have been made in the numerous biographies of Bradman that appeared over the years.

 

[Red]

This reminds me of that AB DeVilliers fake resume

There's nothing fake about it, it's all true.

Bradman, who was born 100 years ago next Wednesday, was a technical perfectionist who excelled in cricket and every other ball game he ever attempted, from golf to billiards. Bradman's batting average of 99.94, or (rounded off) a century every time he batted in his 80 Test innings, was light years ahead of the best of the rest in history in 1948 and remains so. For instance, England's great batting hope at this moment is Kevin Pietersen, whose batting average, after 80 innings, now stands at 50.51. Effectively, whenever Bradman played, his team had 12 rather than 11 men, which usually meant it won.

And there is no doubt that Bradman liked to win. At 16, he had to choose between tennis, at which he excelled as a country champion, and cricket. He agonised over his decision and never ceased to test himself against the best, taking great satisfaction in beating every Australian Wimbledon player in his era in "friendly" matches.

After his last first-class cricket match, he turned to golf at 40 and developed himself into a fine, even exceptional, golfer who managed to shoot under par at every major golf course in South Australia and Victoria.

Bradman was a talented billiards player too. In 1934 he was beaten by the world's No. 1, Walter Lindrum. Bradman's competitive juices flowed. He had a billiards room built in his new Adelaide home. "He practised every day for a year," Lady (Jessie) Bradman told me proudly, "and then challenged Lindrum to a return encounter and matched him."

The Don's finest declaration - Cricket - Sport - theage.com.au