Commemorating Sir Don

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle January 2008)

Happy New Year! Welcome to the year 2008. The new year will witness the Olympics in Beijing. The mega symbol of the ancient West travels to modern Orient, which is in the race to become “faster, higher, stronger”.

While the world of sports gets ready to celebrate the biggest event on earth, cricket-lovers have their own little festival this year. Sir Donald George Bradman, arguably the greatest cricketing legend, would have been a ripe hundred years old on 27 Aug, 2008. The master of tons—29 in 52 Tests—fell eight short of a ton in life when he passed away on 25 Feb, 2001.

Sir Don’s statistical performance is perhaps the greatest in any sport. With a Test batting average of 99.94, he towers over all the other great batsmen—Len Hutton, the three Ws, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar, to name a few. Sunny Gavaskar, who broke Sir Don’s record of centuries, appeared to labour for that in comparison to the Don’s elegance.

Arch-rivals England were stunned by the way Don Bradman played. It was not for nothing that cricket writer RC Robertson-Glasgow wrote about the English reaction the following words when Bradman retired: “... a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal.” His comparison to the Carthaginian military commander—one of the finest in history—speaks volumes.

What were the trademarks of this legend? Fast footwork, calm confidence and rapid scoring. Now, these are in general the mantras of success that anybody may apply in one’s life. Most of us are too lethargic to make room for the ball. We want to have the ball come on to our bat. But success comes to those who make the ball come on to their bats.

At the same time we don’t have to be hasty. This is where calm confidence comes into play. And in today’s Internet age rapid scoring has become all the more important. So let the scoreboard tick and be in full control.

If Sir Don had perfected this art, so can you.