Young Bradman

109 If I think Jackson will be more successful in England than Bradman this is simply because his defence is sounder. Yet both may quickly realise that defence is more important in England than in Australia where wickets remain true and the ball comes along invariably at a uniform height and seldom swings except for a few overs. Even when a ball swings in Australia it is in the early part of its flight and not as in England towards the end. But I expect that both Jackson and Bradman will soon master this difference in conditions important though it is. Only then did Hobbs discuss Bradman (who had ‘advanced in three seasons from being a crude up-country matting wicket player to quite the best Test match standard’). Hobbs picked the wrong man. By numbers, it should have looked obvious beforehand who would excel. In the 1929/30 Sheffield Shield, Bradman made most runs, 894, at an average of 111; next came Vic Richardson with 557 at 46. Jackson and Kippax between them made 458 at an average of 38; neither played a full season because of illness. Jackson’s reputation survived the failure – he remained forever a youth of promise - because of the tuberculosis that soon killed him. Bradman fell in with that (‘a more robust constitution enabled me to perform in 1930 feats which were expected to come from my revered colleague’). Few have asked how Bradman and Jackson, who had so much in common, got on. In his December 1930 serial Bradman recalled staying with him in the same Adelaide hotel before Jackson’s debut for Australia; the other players were elsewhere. ‘No two fellows were ever so keen or enthusiastic. Bradman or machine? Undated study of Victor Trumper. Note the difference between left and right batting gloves.