Spirit of Bradman more than a match for dark forces (10 January 1999)

10 January 1999

Spirit of Bradman more than a match for dark forces

By Tony Lewis

I AM sitting in my room in Sydney thinking about Indian bookmakers spinning webs around Test cricketers like Salim Malik, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh, wondering how many more schoolboy heroes will be implicated and whether their mere apologies will be enough to clean their slates. So often we get used to anything in the end.

Bribery and back-handers have long been part of India's business lore, and although betting is illegal there, punting on cricket is wild and bookmakers thrive. There are few professional players or commentators on cricket who have not been asked to help Asian punters to get their forecasts right.

How guilty were Warne and Waugh? How guilty Malik? You can argue that match-throwing is nothing new and the proliferation of one-day international bashes are almost designed for the universal punter. You may know that cricket was once a game made for betting. That is why there are two innings - the losing gambler had a chance to get his money back the second time round.

Cricket, we are frequently reminded, faithfully reflects the society in which we live. In 1999, there is a mass of money swirling around cricket in the areas of commercial and broadcasting rights, sponsorship and in betting. We look to administrators to keep cricket sporting and the International Cricket Council, who meet in New Zealand this weekend, have their chance to impose sanctions on those who have slipped a hand into the bookie's satchel. They should be discussing life bans.

We also need the example of individuals. John Reid, the former New Zealand captain, imposed a suspended fine on Glenn McGrath for sledging. It has worked so far. That Pakistan are bravely determined to clear out all betting villainy is much to do with the resolve of Chief Executive Majid Khan, a most honourable and sporting cricketer. I would not care to be the bookie who offered Majid a billion dollars for a word on the weather in Lahore.

In all this muck and nettles, a beautiful flower. Yesterday, I went on a pilgrimage. Two hours by car on the Canberra road to the green, wooded freshness of small-town Bowral. White-on-brown signalled me to the Bowral Oval, the Bradman Museum and the home to which Don Bradman's parents moved when he was a child of two.

The visit was like going back to the spring of one's own cricket, to playing with bat and ball on any bit of ground from dawn to dusk. MCC put a team out to play a Bradman Museum XI and no artist could have dreamed up a more idyllic scene of an oval surrounded by quiet roads and low houses, trees and white pickets, spectators on wooden benches, a neat pavilion and, most importantly, an excellent pitch with good pace and bounce.

Behind the pavilion stands the Bradman Museum, opened in 1996. One of the locals floated modestly around the pavilion - Ian Craig, former Australian captain. Don Bradman, the small boy, playing the golf ball with his cricket stump at the water tank in the small walled area outside his back door in Bowral is an image which has stayed with many lovers of the game.

That tiny area has been replicated in the museum and alongside it is a black and white video of a modern youngster playing the same repetitious game.

Inspiring and revealing, but I left Bowral with words in mind, not picture images. Recognise the current fine examples set by individuals like Majid Khan and Reid but see also the creed which is written into cricket's laws.

The sporting code is still implicit and when you make your own pilgrimage to Bowral, which I truly recommend, you too may leave with the words of Sir Donald Bradman travelling in your mind. They are inscribed in glass at the museum entrance:

"Without doubt the laws of cricket and the conduct of the game are a great example to the world. We should all be proud of this heritage which I trust may forever stand as a beacon light guiding man's footsteps to happy and peaceful days."

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)