4 Lesser Known Facts About Sir Donald Bradman

Cricket is a game that came a long way since its inception. From being a game of Bat and ball played in an open ground, soon enough with the rising technological innovation Cricket found its new place in digital devices in the form of online gaming. Fantasy Cricket is one such outcome where the users has to choose his own players and make his own team during any real life cricket tournament.  Fantasy sports especially cricket is so popular these days that from teenagers to professionals all play fantasy cricket whenever they can. It is an engaging game which further induces fans to involve themselves more with the real sport. Talking about which, Cricket although has gone through so many innovations and other changes, nonetheless, Sir Donald Bradman is and will continue to be venerated as the greatest batsman ever in history of cricket. However, I am not here to talk about his overall achievements in the sport or his test average which is more or less known to all rather here is a side of Bradman that might not be familiar to many. Here are some unknown facts about ‘The Don’ of cricket.

The Cricket star was born on 27 August 1908 in Cootamundra, a town in New South Wales region of Australia. As we all know his magnificence lies with many achievements of him including the fact that Bradman was just 21 years old when he scored the highest runs by any batsman that is 309 runs (not out) in the 3^rd Ashes test on 11 July 1930. However, like I mentioned Sir Bradman was also a man of a remarkable persona, here are 4 facts about his that are lesser known about this Cricket God.

1.      

    1.   A Musician

       Cricket was not the only thing he was passionate about, but Bradman was also blessed as a talented musician who loved to play piano and even composed his own songs. It is said, after coming back from Ashes  where his team emerged victorious , the player teamed up with songwriter  Jack Lumsdaine to write ‘Every day is a rainbow day for me’, setting Jack’s words to music.

2.    Mandela’s question.

When former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser visited Nelson Mandela in
Cape Town’s Pollsmoor Prison in 1986, one of Mandela’s first questions was “Tell me, Mr Fraser, is Donald Bradman still alive?”

When Mandela was released from prison several years later, Fraser gave him an autographed cricket bat that said, "To Nelson Mandela in recognition of a great unfinished innings – Don Bradman".

3.    His Greatest Love

       It might appear no less than a fairy tale that Don Bradman found the love of his life                when he was just 5 years old. Don met his wife at the age of five and the pair who                   eventually got married stayed married for 65 years until his wife died in 14 September             1997.

4.    Postal Tribute

Probably the Australian Broadcasting Corporation paid the greatest homage to the cricket legend. The ABC postal address in all capital cities of Australia is Post Office Box 9994 which is Bradman’s Test Batting Average (99.94).

Till now no cricketer has emulated the records of Sir Bradman and probably won’t be able to do that in the future too.