Young Bradman

153 ‘I do remember asking him,’ Steve Waugh said of meeting Bradman at his Adelaide home in 1999, ‘why he was so much better than everyone else and his simple reply was, ‘I wasn’t. There were plenty more talented players than me.’ ‘Well, why did you do so much better?’ Waugh asked. ‘I just worked harder and concentrated better,’ Bradman replied. Waugh, like so many, heard in this old and famous man what they wanted to. It explains why, to give only one example, another Australian captain, Michael Clarke, after losing the Ashes in England in 2013, responded by going to the gym at his hotel early the next morning. This was Roman Catholicism, without God; you saved yourself through good works. The other kind of Christian salvation, the Protestant - because you had faith, or it was pre-destined all along - was not on offer; as Bradman had hinted, ‘plenty’ others could qualify, because of what was inside them. Clarke’s physically punishing and self-centred response spoke also of sportsmen who took themselves so very, very seriously; in fairness, as did everyone around them. Bradman’s example here was jarring. In 1996 Bradman told Ray Martin: … I always wanted a job that was not connected with cricket, that had nothing to do with cricket. I got pushed into a job that was to do with cricket, newspaper and radio work, but I got pushed into that because the Depression came along and I was out of a job, and I had to earn a living somehow. There was more to life than cricket. This man could excel at batting, yet did not want it to take over his life. Bradman here parted from both the 21 st century and from Trumper, who ran like so many other sportsmen a shop selling kit. Bradman’s story is also uncomfortable for parents ambitious for their children. The Middlesex bowler turned journalist Simon Hughes included his children in his pages on Bradman in his 2015 book, Who Wants to be a Batsman : I made sure that my two boys, and girl, had plenty of exposure to different ball sports from an early age (though no access to golf balls anywhere near the house): cricket and football obviously, rugby, tennis, badminton and basketball. I bought them a table-tennis table and played against them regularly, as my father had with me. Hughes’ private life is no business of ours; although he has put it in print. His story does show how doing well at sport – or rather, a parent who has made a living at sport hoping to give his children the same start – does take wealth, that is easy to take for granted. Not everyone can afford a table tennis table; let alone have a room or garden large enough to hold one. ‘Exposure’ gives advantage; but is not enough. Bradman’s parents did not go to such trouble; they were simply there . To busy 21 st century parents – still busy with their own lives – the example of George and Emily Bradman can be unsettling. The Bradmans gave their children time, and These Our Actors