The Private Don: Don Bradman on Cricket, Investment, Politics, the Media, Family and Friends PDF
Preview The Private Don: Don Bradman on Cricket, Investment, Politics, the Media, Family and Friends
Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page i The Don Private Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page ii Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page iii The Don Private Don Bradman on cricket, investment, politics, the media, family and friends Christine Wallace A Sue Hines Book ALLEN & UNWIN Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page iv First published in 2004 Copyright © Christine Wallace 2004 All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,without prior permission in writing from the publisher.The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book,whichever is the greater,to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. A Sue Hines Book Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email: [email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Wallace,Christine,1960- . The private Don. Includes index. ISBN 1 74114 475 2. 1.Bradman,Donald,Sir,1908-2001 – Friends and associates. 2.Rivett,Rohan,1917-1977 – Friends and associates. I.Title. 796.358092 Edited by Jo Jarrah Text design by Phil Campbell Typeset by Midland Typesetters Index by Fay Donlevy Printed by Griffin Press 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page v Contents 1 The Letters 1 2 Cricket 33 3 Investment 85 4 Politics 125 5 The Media 147 6 Family & Friends 161 7 The Private Don 219 Endnotes 229 Select Bibliography 249 Acknowledgements 251 Photographic Credits 253 Index 255 Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page vi Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page 1 1 The Letters Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page 2 ‘I think most people, and probably that includes you, regard me as a difficult & even cantankerous soul. Really I’m not. In fact I’m rather meek, very shy etc, but I confess to an inquiring & individualistic mind with a very pugnacious streak which says that a thing is not necessarily right because others say so.’ – Don Bradman Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page 3 Limelight is illumination of the most unreliable kind.It tricks the incurious and unquesting into the belief that what they see is all that is there. Donald Bradman, sporting great and Australian icon, is the example par excellence. Seven decades of national adoration and intense media attention burned the image of the batsman in the baggy green cap, with the slight grin and wickedly dancing eyes looking coolly up the wicket, into the Australian psyche. But much beyond that gorgeous image, what do we know about Don Bradman? Apart from his carefully recorded cricketing career,arguably little more than a clutch of clichés and prejudices which, when tested, often find their purveyors wanting. Bradman was born in 1908 and retired from first class cricket in 1949, and most biographical treatments of his life concentrate overwhelm- ingly on this period.Yet he lived on for another half century. Biographical work on this part of Bradman’s life is scant. The 3 The Letters Bradmanqrk4 9/9/04 2:11 PM Page 4 relative neglect is akin to reporting the first innings but not the second of a Test match,something untenable for an Australian of his stature.We need to know Bradman in the round,not just in the two dimensions the limelight illuminated – to know him and,because he looms so large in the Australian psyche of the twentieth century, to know ourselves better through him as a people and a nation. Bradman himself knew a historical reassessment awaited him, that it would come after his death,and he considered it as a plus. ‘In my few moments of triumph (if any) in the modest arena I have trodden, I have sought seclusion and peace – not publicity,’ Bradman told his good friend Rohan Rivett in September 1971, at the age of sixty-three.‘But hate it as I might,publicity seems to be my lot.Perhaps my reward will come posthumously for I guess historians will assess whether I faithfully served mankind.’ The scant attention given to the second half of Bradman’s life is especially surprising since he was a regular and voluminous letter writer.After rising to prominence and facing an onslaught of inter- est and admiration, not least via the postal service, he devoted a couple of hours daily to correspondence.Indeed,his diligent atten- tion to it over the attractions of a drink in the bar with the boys during his playing days intensified the sense of singularity and separateness about him as a person. The thousands of Bradman letters held in private hands are the stuff from which historians and biographers can and should draw on to deepen existing accounts of his life.Their range could well stun those who pursue them broadly for Bradman did not corre- spond just with the high and mighty but,in democratic spirit and with due modesty,with all comers.ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson tells the story of how the woman who cleaned house The Private Don 4
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