Young Bradman

19 Beginnings the urge to drag anyone outstanding down to common size. In the 1996 television interview, Ray Martin asked if Bradman suffered from envy of teammates. Bradman’s full reply was telling: No, I was never conscious of much opposition or jealousy from my teammates; in the main they were very helpful, very friendly, very co- operative. On one or two occasions, certainly, and from one or two people, certainly, but in the main they were very co-operative. We can see how Bradman was torn two ways; between wanting to belong to his herd (the initial no, and all those positive words, helpful, friendly, co- operative) and knowing inside that he was a victim and wanting to tell the truth (note that repeated ‘in the main’). Ray Martin did not ask Bradman to specify times of his life. However, at a February 1930 dinner to celebrate the six New South Wales players going to England, when Bradman received a rose bowl to mark his world record score of 452 not out, he replied ‘that he hoped he would never break records to the detriment of his side’. Indeed, when Ray Martin’s earlier question was ‘breaking records – did they matter?’ Bradman’s reply was telling by comparison: a plain ‘no, no’. A paradox of Australia is that in the outback, where the elements can crush life, you are free to be yourself, whereas in their cities, despite the opportunities, you have to conform. That explains why Paul Hogan in the film Crocodile Dundee won the city girl, why the deep-thinking Miles Franklin found Sydney disappointing in My Career Goes Bung , and why Bradman – who could not help but be extraordinary with the bat – did what he could to blend in; he gave the impression that his family was more average than it was. ‘A break away!’, a classic 1891 painting by Tom Roberts (1856-1931) of a rider in a parched landscape trying to stop sheep stampeding to water.