BRADMAN'S STORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23083, 7 July 1938, Page 17

BRADMAN'S STORY

AUSTRALIAN WICKETS CRITICISM ANSWERED OFFER FROM LANCASHIRE m A WEEK GUARANTEED RV HON BRADMAN C H'A I'TKU V. —(Cont i n ued) "Con-tie" is a bundle of human energy, a man of temperament and moods, a rare personality. L don't suppose a finer all-round fielder has ever visited Australia Perhaps, close to the wicket, Percy Chapman was quite as good, hut as a general fieldsman the West Indian is greater, because of his versatility and amazing fleetness of foot. He combines the strength of a lion and the suppleness of a gazelle. Jn Australia his bowling revealed his temperament. At times he would bowl with such speed that he was unplayable. At other times he would try leg--breaks, off-breaks and all manner of deliveries that occurred to him. As for his batting, you never knew what he might do next. I once saw him go down oil one knee and deliberately hook a ball straight over the wicketkeeper's head. The ball almost went for six. A Word About Wickets The West lndiuns were, in some ways, rather like a team of big children; they became vastly excited when they were being successful, utterly despairing when they were not. They had one unexpected criticism of Australian wickets; they said they were less true and much slower than the wickets in the West Indies.

Patsy Hendren, Arthur Richardson and others who have played cricket in the West Indies, say the same thing.

As a matter of fact, there is a great deal of general misconception about the Australian wickets.

The average Englishman appears to think that our pitches are tremendously fast —alhiost glass-like—and so true that fast bowling simply flies oft them. They /are neither so fast nor so true as all that, and they are more often to the liking of spin bowlers than pace bowlers. ,

It is the Grimmetts, the FleetwoodSmiths, the Wards, the O'Reillys, and such like, who take most of the wickets in Australia. Concrete Pitches When he got back to England after the last England tour of Australia, R. W. V. Robins was quoted as saving that concrete pitches are largely responsible for the success bf cricket in Australia. • The question is an intricate one. To my mifid, nothing can come up to a good turf wicket. But in small centres, where money is scarce, iand good turf pitches non-exist-ent, I'. the concrete wicket, properly made and covered with, for preference, canvas, has a lot to be said for it. I learned my cricket as a boy on matting over concrete. There are many places in Australia where there would be no cricket at all but for concrete pitches, pricket on turf would be quite impossible except tinder conditions which would only delight someone like Hedley Verity.

On concrete pitches batsmen can learn to play shots because they can tell with reasonable certainty what the hall will do. and bowlers have to use their wits to do much good. Being a batsman is probably the reason why f have always been keen on bowling, and L remember that when I was about six years old my father threatened to belt me because 1 s *iid I. wanted to be a ground bowler at Sydney I when I grew up. Nearly the Hat-Trick Once, playing in a match at Cairns, Queensland, 1 very nearly did the hattrick. Two wickets off two balls, and then an easy catch off the third. Hut mid-on dropped it —and 1 always thought he wast a friend of mine. It will never happen again. Nowadays, batsmen seem to relish my bowling even more than they used to, but, never mind, I have had the experience of hope and disappointment crammed into one fleeting second of time. . Still, there is often a "catch m beinjz; a bowler. Once, during a tour in Queensland, Clarrie Grimmctt was a im'iiiber of the team, and at one place in their travels so much rain had fallen that cricket was practically out of the question. However they had come a long and the locals would have been terribly disappointed if there had been no play, bo Clarrie and his pals said they would take o|f their shoes and go barefoot. Anything lor a game. , , But was ('larrie's virtue rewarded as it should have been? It was not. Some joker got an idea from somewhere, and as Clarrie hopped «P "pen the bowling in his bare feet, ne found that his path to_ the bowling crease had been surreptiously strewn with 'thistles. . Yes, on the whole, 1 am glad 1 liavo stack to batting, and let other people do the bowling. . . 1 have always been a passionate of cricket and from my earliest dajs wanted to have a career in the To do so meant a lot of hard work ana Practice, which had to be followed up by performances.

But having achieved sufficient in tho way of performance to become an Australian AJ. batsman, i discovered that the name, in its highest sphere, was no longer u recreation, and that it brought tension in place of relaxation. As I have said, 1 went from the real estate business into tho sports department of a big Sydney stm*e, and there i found that the nature of my work caused me to think and talk cricket nearly all day long. I began to ask myself how long ouch a state ol affairs could go on. ion can have too much of a good thing -even too much cricket.

As it happened, about this time an inquiry reached me through an intermediary, as to whether 1 would consider an offer to go to Kngland to play in the Lancashire League. The suggestion came as a surprise to >ne, and 1 set myself to think it over. Having done so, I replied that I would give such an offer full consideration, but that, on the,whole, I. was not particularly interested in the idea of leaving Australia. The story leaked out in part and great publicity was given to it.'

But the full details wore never known to the newspapers, which is mv excuse for giving them now. A Sydney friend of mine, Claude Spencer by name, conducted all the negotiations on my behalf. Constantine, the West Indian player, opened the proceedings with a cable to Spencer to pass on to me.

The •offer "was a contract for three years with the Accrington club. My reply was that such a contract did not satisfy me, but that I was prepared to consider a two-years' contract if the maximum offer was good enough. On top of these cables came other offers, to write articles on cricket subjects, and to utilise, my name for various advertising 1 purposes. Then came suggestions locally. My Sydney employers wanted to renew Tiiy contract with them; another firm had a proposition about newspaper work and broadcasting. The Accrington people were so interested that their secretary put through a telephone call from Lancashire to Sydney (roughly, 13,000 miles, charge £2 a minute, I think), to give me further and fuller details of their offer.

The offer was £3O a week for playing for Accrington; "talent money," guaranteed to a minimum of £.'?oo in my first year; at least £2OO " from other sources "; and free passage from and back to Australia. (To be continned daily.)