Sir Donald Bradman is regarded by many as the greatest
batsman in the history of
cricket and is one
of
Australia's most revered sporting
personalities.
Donald George Bradman was born at Cootamundra, New South Wales, on 27 August, 1908, the fifth and youngest child of George Bradman and Emily, nee Whatman. The Bradman family moved to
Bowral in 1911 and took its place in the activities of the local community. Cricket was one of the
district's popular sports and the young Don Bradman showed an interest from an early age. When
there was no-one to play cricket with him, he devised his own way of perfecting various techniques,
using a cricket stump to hit a golf ball thrown against the tank-stand at the rear of the Bradman
house.
At the age of twelve he scored his first century for Bowral High School; at seventeen he was the
youngest member of the Bowral cricket team, where his ability to make runs broke the club's
records. Before he was nineteen he was selected to play for the New South Wales Second Eleven
against a Victorian side. He also played for the Sydney team St George and while a member of that
team was selected to play for the State Sheffield Shield side in December 1927.
Bradman's first match for New South Wales was against a Barrier side at Broken Hill that month.
His first century against another State side followed immediately after in Adelaide, when he scored
118. He was selected to play in the 1928-29 Test Series against England and in the Third Test, in
Melbourne, he made 112, his first century in Test cricket.