~ TALIA
PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
LAUNCH OF THE BRADMAN ALBUMS
ADELAIDE -5 OCTOBER 1987
Sir Donald Bradman
Lady Bradman
Kevin and Glenda Weldon
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Woody Allen has described a nightmare in which, at the point
of death, with his whole life apparently flashing before his
eyes in a split second, he suddenly realises that it is not
his life at all which he is reviewing, but somebody else's.
Let me place it firmly on the record now, that if I have to
relive someone else's life in my last moments, I want it to
be Don Bradman's.
For, like Richie Benaud, I belong to that generation of
Australians which grew up with the Don as their hero of
heroes. As I shall go on to discuss, the Bradman legend is
based on much more than mere statistics. But the figures
bear some recountiftg.
In 1929, the year I was born, he set a record for that time
of 1690 runs in an Australian season at an average of 94.
The following year, he put England to the sword on their
home turf to the tune of 974 runs at an average of 139 in
five tests. This is still a world record.
As we all know, these prodigious scoring feats by our
champion led the old enemy in 1932-33 to resort to bodyline,
cricket's equivalent of the poisoned apple. I would have
been about three at the time but feel sure that I would have
shared the national sense of outrage. Although Bradman's
mortality was, temporarily at any rate, re-established by
Jardine, Larwood and Co., he nevertheless registered an
average of " only" 56 and a half, a performance which most
other batsmen would be happy to settle for in any series. 0 01 i
I I
2.
And with bodyline properly banned, Don continued to carry
all before him, finishing with the staggering first class
figures of just over 28,000 runs at 95 and just under 7,000
in Tests at the tantalising but tremendous 99.94. When it
is remembered that, in 1948 at the age of 40, Don scored
500 runs at 72 in a Test series against England, we can only
lament his loss to the first-class game during the years of
the Second World War and speculate on what additional
records he might have set.
As a general note on his run-scoring ability, I can mention
a thoughtful and kind letter which Don wrote to me in
response to my greet~ ings on his 75th birthday. He commented
that this anniversary had led him to realise that he had
never scored 75 in k first class match.
At first, I found this a little surprising. But then I
thought, not really -,~ with Don you might look for 175 as a
start, 275 if he was trying, and 375 if the circumstances
really required it.
It was not merely his extraordinary run-scoring feats but
his manner of achieving them which made Bradman a hero in
his own country and a household name wherever cricket is
played. He was, quite simply, a wonderfully entertaining
batsman, who attracted hundreds of thousands of fans to see
him around the wo rld. 6
There was no lamenting any lack of bright cricket in the
Bradman era. For the opposition, it tended to be not so
much bright as blinding. The Australians won their matches
in the 1930' s by tremendous batting, led by the great man
himself, supported by the likes of Bill Ponsford, Stan
McCabe and Bill Woodfull. This gave those superb spinners,
Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O'Reilly, the chance to bowl the
other side out twice.
In Don's brief'post-war career, the same batting recipe
applied, this time in the form of players like Arthur
Morris, Sid Barnes, Lindsay Hassett, Neil Harvey, with the
bowling damage done by the speed and fire of Ray Lindwall,
Keith Miller and Bill Johnston.
And it should be remembered that Bradman towered over an era
of batting giants. Apart from the great Australian players
I have mentioned, English teams he played against included
Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond,
Maurice Leyland, Len Hutton and Denis Compton.
If I have talked so far of Bradman the batting legend, it is
only right that I should give equal weight to Bradman the
captain, and representative of his country. He was a
dedicated and, of course, outstandingly successful leader,
whose performances placed Australia at the pinnacle of world
cricket. His deipeanour, and that of the teams which played
under him, was unfailingly sportsmanlike and professional
I use the word advisedly because it is worth remembering
that remuneration for the players of that time consisted
only of limited out of pocket expenses. 0 0I1
in an era when communications were much less developed than
they have become since, and in which the old British Empire
played a bigger part in Australia's external interests than
it now does, the international image of Australia was very
much that of Bradman. He unfailingly did his country proud,
as a player and a man. Later, as an administrator, he
performed outstanding services for Australian and
international cricket.
Which brings me to the superb Bradman Albums, whose
publication we are celebrating today. The highs and the
very few lows of Don's career are well-known to many of
us. But those facts are Vividly brought to life by this
priceless collection of personal memorabilia cuttings,
letters, diary extracts, ' jhotographs. These two volumes can
only add lustre to the brilliant Bradman legend.
Among the very first entries is a newspaper account of one
of my favourite Bradman stories. In his autobiography,
my Cricketing Life, Don refers to the fact that he first
began to keep a scrap-book of newspaper cuttings when he
started to play for Bowral as a seventeen year old.
He writes: " The next cuttings relate the extraordinary tale of a
match between Bowral and moss Vale. The match lasted
six Saturdays. Our captain was my uncle, George
Whatman, and when he won the toss he sent me in first
wicket. At ' stumps', as we call close of play in
Australia, ( Don must have put that in for
Godfrey Evans' benefit) I was 80, not out.
Next Saturday came and I went on batting. At the finish
that day the Bowral score was 475 for one wicket. I was
279, still in, and Uncle George was about a hundred. To
cut a long story short, I was caught when I was exactly
300; my uncle made 220, and we won by an innings."
And there, on page 13 of the Albums, is the scoreboard of
Bowral's epic innings of 9 for 672 declared, which includes
as its highlights:
Don Bradman C. Prigg by Ryder 300
G. Whatman b. S. Tickner 227
Th'e only relief for the Moss Vale bowlers comes with
V. Bradman b. Aynsley 1
and, " Dick Whatman did not bat owing to a broken toe."
Among other 300' s recordeo1 in these pages are those he
scored in successive Test series in England in 1930 and
1934. It is no wonder that a copy of a poster of the London
' Star' of 20 August 1930 reproduced here, reads simply, and
with an enormous sense of relief, " He's Out" ( the Don had
just scored 232 in the Fifth Test). 0 0 1 i
At the other end of the scale are the few but famous ducksbowled
first ball in the Melbourne bodyline test by
Bill Bowes, who sadly died the other day ( Don got 103 not
out in the second innings); bowled second ball by Eric
Hollies in his final innings at the Oval in 1948, a delivery
which ensured immortality for Hollies and at the same time
averted the divine wrath that would have undoubtedly
accompanied a Test average of 100.
As one who has always been alive to the parallels of cricket
and politics, I was fascinated by the press cuttings from
the period December 1936 January 1937 alleging divisions
in the Australian team and lack of loyalty to Bradman as
captain. We all know where that sort of thing can lead.
In this case, history records that Don spiritedly denied the
allegations, stuck resolutely by his players and led
Australia from a desperate position 2-nil down to a
brilliant 3-2 victory. That is the stuff heroes are made
of. And there is no more heroic story than that of the Leeds
Test in 1948, when Australia was set 400 to win in under six
hours on the last day on a worn pitch and got them with
seven wickets and fifteen minutes to spare, thanks to a
stand of 300 between Arthur Morris and Don. How many teams
already 2-nil up and determined to go through a tour4-
unbeaten would have gone for the runs, let alone have got,
them at 70 an hour?,
It is no wonder that, in the " Bradman Album", Don describes
that tour as the pinnacle of his cricketing life and
comments that Australia's victory at Leeds and his own part
in it surpass all other moments of sporting satisfaction.
And may I also say what a thrill it is to see so many great
cricketers frcom 1948 here tonight and to take this
opportunity to offer a personal salute to them.
Kevin Weldon and the team at Rigby Publishers deserve our
heartiest congratulations on realising this splendid
project. And it is particularly pleasing that the proceeds
from tonight's occasion will go to the Crippled Children's
Society. I would like to end my remarks by referring once more to the
character of Bradman the man and Bradman the cricketer the
man they want to build statues of in India, the man whose
interviews with Norman May.-are eagerly awaited 40 years
after he finished playing, the man who so generously and
graciously led Australia's cricketing fraternity in a
tribute to Les Favell earlier this year.
And I can do no better than use Don's own words from the
Introduction to the Bradman Albums:
" In retrospect, and surveying the broad canvas, I
suppose more than anything else I look back and say I am
grateful that as the son of simple country parents, and
without the benefit of wealth, power or influence, but
with only the talents bestowed upon me by nature, I was
able to occupy the highest posts the Australian cricket
world had to offer. As a result I was given the
opportunity for much of that period to impart my
interpretation of the character of this wonderful game
which has meant so much to cricket lovers everywhere.
In so doing, I am happy in the knowledge that I did not
betray the responsibility., entrusted to me and I was
enabled, I hope, to enhance the best traditions of the
sport."
Don, and I am sure I speak for all of us here when I say
this, you most certainly did. 001 i 5 3,