Eager crowds had gathered to watch the greatest batsman of all time come out of retirement to captain the Prime Ministers XI – but it wasn’t to be Sir Donald Bradman’s day.
By Tom Goodman
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 7, 1963
Sir Donald’s brief encounter
Canberra, Wednesday – It was a sad moment for a record crowd of 10,000 at Manuka Oval today when Sir Donald Bradman was out to the fifth ball he faced.
Sir Donald Bradman, left, leads the Prime Minister’s XI on to Manuka Oval on February 6, 1963.Credit:Harry Martin
Sir Donald, whose fabulous Test career lasted from 1928 to 1948, played for the played for the Prime Minister’s Eleven against the touring M.C.C. team, and made one scoring stroke, for four runs.
He played the fifth ball, from Brian Statham, on to his wicket.
The spectators, some of whom had travelled from Sydney and Melbourne, were dreadfully disappointed.
So were the English players, especially Statham, who watched Sir Donald play the ball on to his pad. It then bounced on to his wicket and dislodged a bail.
Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies watches the cricket match between the MCC and the Prime Ministwer’s XI at Manuka Oval, Canberra on 6 February, 1963Credit:Harry Martin
He left the wicket with a firm step and his head erect. But his shoulders seemed to be a little more stooped than when he had gone in to bat (No. 5) a few minutes after four o’clock.
Sir Donald fielded for 2½ hours while the Englishmen batted, first at extra cover, and later at first slip.
He was limping slightly from a minor leg strain, and wanted to avoid running.
Sprightly And Slim
When the magnetic name Bradman appeared on the scoreboard, the crowd around Australia’s prettiest cricket ground gave him an ovation.
He looked, at 54, sprightly and slim, and he wore his Australian cap.
The English players applauded him to the wicket.
Don Bradman leaves the field after being bowled.
Slow bowler Tom Graveney began to Bradman with a “grubber” outside the off stump—a “gift,” which “the Don” disdained to hit.
So Graveney pitched up true next ball straight, and Sir Donald straight-drove it for four. He played the next ball to the on-side.
Statham was the other bowler. Mr Don Chipp, M.P., edged him through slips for a single, and it became Bradman v Statham. The first ball from Statham was fast medium, and played firmly.
The next ball, pitched on the off, was fatal.
Not In “A Thousand Years”
Back in the new pavilion — the Bradman Pavilion, which Mr Menzies had officially opened this morning — Sir Donald said: “It wouldn’t happen in a thousand years.
“I played the ball with the middle of the bat. It went on to my left leg and on to the stumps, just hard enough to dislodge a bail.”
There was no Bradman-Bedser duel.
M.C.C. captain Ted Dexter had bowled Bedser, a great Test medium-pacer, for several overs before tea, and was reserving him for a tilt at his old rival once Sir Donald had got started.
Legacy will benefit handsomely from Sir Donald’s decision to accept the Prime Minister’s invitation to lead his team.
Estimated gate takings of £2,000 will be supplemented by several hundred pounds from gifts and raffles, and Legacy may receive about £1,700.
