Subjects: The death of Sir Donald Bradman
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CAVE:
Mr Howard, the news must have come as a bit of a shock to you as well?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it was always going to be a shock when Don Bradman died because he's really been the most dominant figure in Australian life now for decades. He was very ill, I saw him last Friday week, I paid a special visit to Adelaide to see him and I knew he was in very poor health. I spoke to his son John just a few minutes ago. I want to express on behalf of the entire Australian nation our sympathy and send our love to the Bradman family and record the appreciation of the Australian people for a wonderful life which not only gave this country and the world the greatest cricketer, and according to many people who compare these things, perhaps the greatest sportsman in one hundred years. He was also a person who at a time of economic and social despair during the Depression, lifted the spirits of the Australian people and gave them heart and a sense of belief in themselves. He was more than just a great cricketer and a great sportsman, he was a dominant Australian personality in a way that I don't think any other person has been in the last one hundred years.
CAVE:
He became something of a recluse in his later years, you did actually meet him several times, what did you think of him as a person?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh, very intelligent, a person who had a keen interest, not only in sport, but also in the affairs of the world. A person of quite restless intelligence and someone who preserved great respect for the values that he thought were important about behaviour, not only on the sporting field but also in life generally. I enjoyed his company. I saw him from time to time over the last few years. He was of course increasingly lonely and on his own after the death of his wife Jessie, they had been married for sixty-five years and had lived in the same home in Adelaide which they built when they went there in the 1930s. He was greatly supported by his son, John, and his grandchildren and every support and comfort was given to him during the last twelve or eighteen months of his life.
CAVE:
Mr Howard what are your earliest memories of him as a player?
PRIME MINISTER:
I only saw him once. I saw him in 1949 when my father took me to the Sydney Cricket Ground Hill and saw him play in his last appearance at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the Kippax Oldfield Testimonial. It's a testament I suppose to the grip he's had on the cricket world that that is now, 51 years ago, 52 years ago, it was the last time he played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and it is still vivid in my recollection and of course cricket lovers around the world much younger than I still revere him and the name still has a special resonance. There's nobody, there's been nobody like that in the game and I doubt that there will ever be anybody quite like that.
CAVE:
Mr Howard what do you think would be a fitting memorial?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's too early to say that. His memorial is a, in a sense a personal and almost spiritual one, it's the special place he's had in the affections of our community. The fact that we could be seeing it as a moment in the life of the country, his passing, is quite extraordinary and it is a tribute to the impact that he's had on our lives. I mean there are many memorials already, there are many grandstands, there are many areas, there's a museum, there's a foundation, all of those things and there'll be many more and that is a matter of course for his family. But the impact that he's had on the sporting world and this is an event that will be marked and felt all around the world, not just in Australia.
CAVE:
Mr Howard thank you very much for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[Ends]