Bradman's legacy

The Australian nation “has never had a war of independence, it’s therefore never had a George Washington, it’s never had a civil war, never had a Lenin, it’s never had a war against a close enemy, it’s therefore never had a Joan of Arc, and so on and so forth”.

It is interesting to note the comparison given between Australia and other nations with regards to their national heroes and people who have provided them a sense of national identity, especially during hard times. As M. McKernan stated in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on March 3, 2001, just as Winston Churchill “gave his people the spirit to keep on fighting when defeat looked inevitable”, Bradman was also seen “as the symbol of his country's indomitable spirit”.

Don Bradman’s influence in contributing to a sense of Australian national identity was not only seen during the 1930s. Following World War II his influence was probably just as great as Australians attempted to return to a semblance of normality in their daily lives.

When Test cricket resumed in Australia in 1946-47, there was much speculation about whether or not Bradman would resume his Test career. He was suffering from ill health and there was the inevitable talk that he would not be the player he was in the 1930s. Despite this, however, to not play against England would have been to Bradman, as Page describes, “like desertion of the game which meant so much to him - and still needed him so badly”. He also personally felt a keen responsibility to do all he could to restore post-war Test cricket, a debt he felt he owed to the game before he retired.

This principled attitude of Bradman to the game of cricket was significant in the healing of the Australian mood following the war.

Bradman was known by many to always put principles before his own self-interest. As The Sydney Morning Herald stated soon after his passing, his decision to play once again for Australia after the war comes across as all the more noble today as it “fuse[d] nationalism and sport in an heroic and pure way that has now been lost forever to the trivialities of commercialism and celebrity”.

Bradman’s significance at this time was that he helped bring not only Australia, but also England, together as a nation again by his decision to resume playing cricket. Commenting on the opening of the First Test of the 1946-47 series, Page says that one newspaper “described Bradman as ‘the young man who has arrived in our lives again to take our minds off post-war problems’”.

However it was the 1948 Australian tour of England, in which Bradman captained Australia for the last time, which was, in terms of Bradman’s influence, the most significant post-war event that helped cement a sense of national identity in Australia.

The 1948 team, and Bradman in particular, helped fuse the national psyche once again in a nation that had been ravaged by the war. It has been stated that, because we did not have any real Australian icons, “all our desires for national validity were tied up with this extraordinary team” (Allen 2001, p. 8), particularly with Bradman leading it. Additionally, the fact that Bradman was playing once again helped Australians to take our minds off the troubles of post-war Australia.

Don Bradman, through his unparalleled cricketing deeds as well as his exemplary attitude in the playing of the game, was both an inspiration and a hero to ordinary Australians during the years of the Great Depression in the 1930s as well as during the rebuilding of Australia in the years following World War II.

He was the one person to whom Australians could look in their desire to be recognised as equal to the rest of the world. He was the image of the “Aussie battler” taking on the might of one of the most powerful empires the world has seen, and beating them at their own game.

The man we knew and loved as “The Don” showed us that through determined effort and hard work, we could be as good as anyone. He lifted our national self-esteem and indeed “lit up the nation” as evidenced by his great mate, Sam Loxton.

At a time when we never needed it more, Don Bradman helped unify the nation and helped us define who we are as Australians. We are forever indebted to him for leaving us his legacy.