What Do They Know Of Cricket That Cricket Knows

"It was always going to be a shock when Don Bradmandied, because he has really been the most dominant figure in Australian life nowfor decades.." John Howard, Australian Prime Minister.

This statement issued some time back clearly gives us asense of the loss the Australians were expecting for some time now, a loss theyknew was coming rather soon. With Donald Bradman suffering from ill health forsome time now, the inevitable was just a matter of time. It has finally struckon February 25, 2001, justifiably resulting in an overflow of eulogies from allparts of the world for the best cricketer ever.

His phenomenal average and his exceptional batting featshave long become part of cricketing folklore, and after his death they are socommonplace, that it would be a waste of words recounting them once more.Rather, for once it would be worth going beyond the game itself, trying to givefruition to C.L.R. James's immortal statement "What do they know of cricketthat only cricket knows?"

Cricket, it may be recalled, was nearing a possible deathin Australia in the late 1920s and early 30s on account of the severe financialdepression plaguing the country. To put the figures in context, unemployment inthe country had risen from 11% in 1929 to 29% in 1932. People almost bankrupt,could hardly afford the luxury of going to sporting encounters, a fact evidentfrom the falling attendance's all over the country. General receipts of thecomparatively rich Melbourne Cricket Club, records show, had also dropped from£40,000 in 1928-29 to £30,000 in 1930-31.

And cricket, it was apparent, was nearing a very rough phase.At this juncture as Phillip Landsay recalled "Any name was needed to reviveour shrinking egos.....had there been a god of the game to whom we could haveprayed, that lad's name would have risen from every home in Australia, freightedwith a country's hopes." As if to answer such beacon calls, there emergedBradman. He was much more than a simple cricketer, he was Australian cricket'smuch needed'avatar'.

By his exceptional achievements on the playing field, hehelped restore a near lost confidence in the minds of his countrymen, anachievement made easy by his humble lower middle class background. The reactionhis success heralded in depression-hit Australia was unparalleled, it wouldn'tbe an exaggeration to state that it successfully galvanised a heart-brokennation. In Sydney, when news of the Australian victory over England arrivedbefore dawn in 1930, thousands of people were waiting outside the offices of theSydney Morning Herald to catch aglimpse of the scores. With so many people out of work, as Chris Harte says"a new young hero was just what they wanted". After the series whenBradman returned to work at the Mick Simmons sports store in central Sydney,more than 2,000 people stood to catch a glimpse of their newfound legend.

This revival initiated in 1930 was carried forward by theinfamous Bodyline controversy in 1932-33. Even in this biggest crisis ofcricket, prior to Hansiegate, money had left an indelible mark, a factorsuccessfully kept removed from public gaze to protect the myth about the noblenature of the gentleman's game. Soon after the Bodyline imbroglio had unleasheditself, the Australian Board of Control had sent a cable to the MCC, the text ofwhich read "Bodyline is causing intensely bitter feeling between players...in our opinion it is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once, it is likely to upset friendly relations existingbetween England and Australia". The prompt MCC response to this cableinformed the Australian Board that if they felt disposed to cancel the remainder of the tour, the MCC would be reluctantlycompelled to agree.

This reaction, Jack Fingleton argues in his celebratedclassic on the Bodyline series 'Cricket Crisis', "sent the Australian Boardscurrying to the fox holes. If this series was doing nothing else, it wasgenerating huge profits. "Sportsmanship or no sportsmanship, the seriesmust go on." In a situation when money was key for the survival of thegame, the Bodyline series could not be stopped. A strategy devised primarily tocheck the cricketing genius of Bradman, bodyline, itseems in hindsight, was the best thing that could havehappened to Australian cricket in its years of depression.

With the depression showing signs of recession in 1933-34Australian cricket had never had to look back again. This commercial appeal ofthe Don, which helped rescue Australian cricket in the 1930s, became a majorcause of trauma for this legend in recent years.In 2000, the Prime Minister had to intervene personally to stop companiestrying to use Bradman's name to endorse their products. The Bradman museum inBowral had to spend countless sleepless nights trying to stop companies fromresorting to unjust business tactics. An attempt by the Ultimate Risk Sex shopto rename the store after the legend had attracted considerable media attentiona few months back. What was even worse was the alleged attempt by a Sydneybookstore owner to auction personal letters of Bradman, letters of themaster giving accounts of his wife Jessie's tragic death from cancer. This fatalcommercial attraction has also forced his son John Bradman to change his surnameto escape form the paparazzi.

In this situation, when the sporting world lookslongingly for an icon, more so an immortal one, as most new stars soon fade intooblivion becoming arcane data in dusty sport history texts, the Don's demand fora personal funeral seems all the more justified.

The king is dead. Long live the king.