SIR DON BRADMAN
THE GREATEST BATSMAN-A TRIBUTE
by Vimal Kumar

There is a saying in Sanskrit language -"NA BHUTA NA BHAVISYATI" which literally means "Neither in past, nor in future" Sir Don genius comes in this category.  

There can only be a few characters not only in cricket or in any sport or in any other walk of life who can be called "GOD'S RARE OF RAREST CREATIONS". Bradman was one of those invaluable gifts of the god to the world. In fact cricket will always be indebted to Don who played the game in such a way that that no body can ever match. The only batsman who could bat better than Bradman was the man himself! In Bradman's death cricket lost it's finest ambassador. It would be no exaggeration if one says that in Bradman's death, cricket lost its most loveable son.

Donald Bradman was phenomenal, extraordinary, incomparable, his class and calibre was amazingly incredible. If you use all the above adjectives to any person, he would seem supremely monumental. Of course, Bradman too was. But in case of Don, even the most powerful adjectives of the English language are not adequate enough to describe his worth. Portraying the class and awesome magic by a mere pan is not a simple work and to that you need people like Neville Cardus. Bradman was simply beyond the adjectives and literature.

It is quite a strange paradox that whenever the name of Bradman comes to mind, suddenly flashes the unachievable average of 99.94. The media and cricket lovers were and still are so much obsessed and hypnotized by the sheer magnetic average of Bradman that there is hardly any effort to look beyond that. Strange isn't it? Because sir Don was multifariously brilliant than his truly majestic average suggests.

Quoting the best cricket-writer Neville Cardus "the power of genius is not to be measured by the score board and not even by the clock." Bradman was and of course will always remain one and only genius of its kind, who could never be measured by million runs he scored.

The seemingly infallible brand of cricket, which was flawlessly magical, gave ultimate pleasure to those, who were greatly fortunate or may be privileged to witness a cricket-God on the field. The most revered icon who illuminated the cricket field in 20th century with his lively unmatched quality of glorious batsman-ship will remain the immortal guardian of a house whose name is Cricket.

It is a tragic irony that the man, who made centuries at will in the game, was not able to get a hundred in real life. We pay our sincere tribute to the greatest batsman of the game.

The most enviable CV of all time in the history of cricket is as follows.

52 Tests- 80 innings- 10 not outs-6996 runs- 13 half centuries- 29 hundreds- highest score-334.