Cricketing legend, batsman par excellence and a hero to every new entrant who dreams of making it big in the arena of cricket – Sir Donald George Bradman, affectionately known as ‘The Don’, is being celebrated today on his birthday. He is considered as the greatest batsman of all times and would have turned 110 today.
Google salutes the legend with a doodle in his honour.
Don Bradman was born in Cootamundra, New South Wales in 1908 and started playing cricket early on in his life.
He once famously said that his skill at hitting fast paced balls was because of his experience in his early days. He would hit a golf ball off the curved base of a water tank, using a cricket stump, which was narrower than a bat. As a result, the ball would come back fast and at different angles. This, according to him, helped him develop a sense of distance and pace. He has the unique achievement of a lifetime test batting average of 99.4, which many consider as the greatest achievement by any athlete in a sport.
Debuting at an early age of 19, he scored 118 runs in his first match. He was so skilled that he averaged at least one century every three innings over the course of his 21-year test match career. He amassed a total of 6,996 runs in 52 Test matches. His popularity was so high, that when Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack polled 100 former cricketers and journalists to determine the top cricketers of the 20th century, he was nominated by all 100.
After his retirement, he remained a constant support for Australian cricket as an administrator and commentator. Bradman was honored with a museum during his lifetime and was knighted in 1949.
At the age of 92, he passed away in 2001, after a bout of Pneumonia. In 2009, the ace cricketer was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.