The Bradman Museum, named Bradman Museum & International Cricket Hall of Fame, is in Bowral, next to the Bradman Oval. Sir Donald Bradman, the namesake of the museum and often referred to as “The Don”, was Australia’s greatest cricketer.
Sir Donald Bradman has impressive career statistics. I remember my Pa, Jim Crossley, talking about how upsetting it was for The Don to go out for a duck in his final test, falling short by 4 runs for a career average of 100 runs, ending with an average of 99.94. He had a 7,000 run total – and of those, there were only 6 sixes but 618 fours. He had a number of high scores over 300 runs, 334 in test cricket. In Sheffield Shield, his high score was 452 not out. Sir Donald Bradman retains many test records going back to the 1930’s, such as the most runs in a single day’s play (309 vs England in 1930).
Next, leading into the Bradman Gallery is some information about the origins of cricket, and the evolution of the bat and ball from the 14th century to now. The Bradman Gallery is everything Bradman, with Sir Donald Bradman’s first bat and his baggy green. You can have a go at hitting a ball against a water tank with a stump, a training technique used by Bradman.
Leave the Bradman Gallery to progress to more modern cricket days, with the introduction of World Series Cricket. It changed the game in 1977, a controversial change with Kerry Packer. There is a theatre adjoining to watch a presentation about the early days of World Series Cricket.
The International Cricket Hall contains a number of screens showing cricket footage and interactive sections.
With The Don a part of the fabric of Australian history, I found The Bradman Gallery particularly interesting. To understand how much he is a part of the fabric of Australian history, in 2000 the Government decided to amend the Corporations Law Regulations to restrict a business name to imply a connection to Sir Don Bradman. He was the only person to be included in such restrictions until Mary MacKillop was canonised in 2010.
While I’m not a cricket fanatic, I still appreciate the game and its history and have fond memories of the distinctive style of Richie Benaud’s commentary in the background on telly, a symbol of summertime and the summer holidays in Australia. If you are heading through Bowral and have the time, dropping in to the Bradman Museum is well worth doing.
