Controversies surrounding Don Bradman

Aged 19, he made a first-class debut for the NSW team in 1927–28 and first earned selection for the Australian Test side during the Ashes series of 1928–29.

After scoring a world record of 334 runs in the Test match at Leeds, Bradman was given a cheque for £1000 – £75,000 today – by an admiring expatriate Australian businessman.

Bradman left his teammates on board their ship at Fremantle to attend welcoming functions in Adelaide, Melbourne, Goulburn, his hometown Bowral and Sydney, all organised by his employers.

[6] The Board of Control ruled that the serialised extracts of his book were a technical breach of his tour contract, which banned players from writing about the game.

[10] Bradman was advised by the Board of Control that if he played cricket in England in 1932, it would be another breach of his 1930 tour contract and therefore he would not be considered for Test selection if he went ahead with the deal.

Public opinion divided: Australian cricket could not afford to lose him and some thought he was selling his birthright, but at the height of the Depression, working-class people empathised with Bradman.

They devised a two-year contract whereby Bradman would write for Associated Newspapers, broadcast regularly on Radio 2UE and promote the menswear retailing chain FJ Palmer and Son.

[12] The contract was substantially less than the money on offer from Accrington, and it would increase Bradman's dependence on his public profile,[13] thus making it more difficult to lead the private life that he desired.

London's News Chronicle summed up the prevailing sentiment:As long as Australia has Bradman she will be invincible...To keep alive the competitive spirit, the authorities might take a hint from billiards.

[16] Warner opined that, "England must evolve a new type of bowler and develop fresh ideas and strange tactics to curb his almost uncanny skill".

Encouraged by the perception that Bradman struggled against bouncers on a lively pitch during his 232 at The Oval, Jardine began gathering information from players such as Frank Foster who employed "leg theory" in English cricket.

Jardine's innovation was to combine traditional leg theory with short-pitched bowling that bounced more alarmingly on harder Australian pitches.

He settled on the Notts fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce as the spearheads for his tactics during a meeting with the duo's county captain, Arthur Carr.

The unusually high number of fast bowlers caused a lot of comment in both countries and Bradman himself suspected a virulent intent.

[18] Bradman had several problems to deal with at this time, he was suffering random bouts of illness from an undiagnosed malaise,[18] while the dispute over his newspaper contract was being resolved.

In his absence, England persisted with bowling Bodyline (as it was now dubbed) and won an ill-tempered match despite a heroic century from Stan McCabe.

Australia took a first-innings lead in the match, and another record crowd on turned out on 2 January 1933 to watch Bradman hit a counter-attacking second innings century.

Angry crowd scenes occurred after the Australian skipper Bill Woodfull and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield were hit by bouncers.

Furious that a private conversation in the dressing room made the newspapers, Warner blamed Jack Fingleton for what he considered to be a breach of ethics.

Always seeking to score, he often backed away and hit the ball into the vacant half of the outfield with unorthodox shots reminiscent of tennis or golf.

Australia, scheduled to make its first full tour of South Africa the following summer,[22] needed to replace the retired Bill Woodfull as captain.

[23] However, on 8 August 1935, the Board announced that Bradman was unfit and that he was withdrawing from the squad;[24] yet he led the South Australia team in a full programme of matches in the absence of the Australian players.

The issue of the off-field behaviour of Vic Richardson, and some other regular SA players, had festered over a number of years and the SACA was desperate for a solution.

[29] In South Africa, the Australia team had a very successful tour[30] and senior players such as Bill O'Reilly were pointed in their comments about the enjoyment of playing under Richardson's captaincy.

To start the new season, the Test side played a rest of Australia team captained by Bradman at Sydney in early October 1936.

The Test XI suffered a big defeat, due to Bradman's 212 and a bag of twelve wickets by leg-spinner Frank Ward.

Bradman's obstinacy, he believed, was responsible for much of the ill-will that brought about the Packer breakaway: "Once you'd put your case he countered with the perennial, 'No son, we can't do that,' delivered in his distinctive high-pitched tone, as was the harangue that followed and then the meeting was over.