Sir Donald Bradman is arguably Australia's greatest ever sportsman, in any sport, having achieved unbelievable feats on the cricket ground at International level and in fact is this country�s only knighted cricketer. Sir Don was born in 1908 and whilst at school used to amuse himself by using a cricket stump to continually hit a golf ball against a water tank, all the time honing a skill that would one day see him as undeniably the greatest batsman of all time. Although Bradman left school at the age of 14 he didn�t commence playing the game of cricket until he was 16 years of age and in 1928 at the age of 20 was selected to play for Australia against our old adversary England and although we lost that Series, Bradman scored a century in his Third Test. It soon became apparent to all good judges that Bradman was an extremely gifted batsman indeed for in one State game he hit a brisk 452 in World Record time. In 1930 Bradman was again selected in the Australian team which took six weeks to sail to England, the Series itself was a most successful one with Bradman scoring 974 test runs. In 1932 at the age of 24 "The Don" as he became known as married Jessie Menzies a girl from his hometown. In 1932 England toured Australia and it was at this time that in an effort to curtail "The Don�s" amazing run scoring, England introduced the savage "bodyline" bowling so named as it was apparent that the bowlers were aiming at the batsman�s body not at the wickets, in an effort to intimidate. In 1936 "The Don" was made captain of the Australian team a fine achievement considering his lack of experience in the job at State level. After the War, Bradman was back in England again playing cricket and soon after retiring with the incredible Test average of 99.94 runs. Donald Bradman was knighted in 1949 and although he has taken on some public roles especially associated with the Australian Cricket Board, he has in the main sought and achieved a very private life. Sir Donald Bradman passed away peacefully in his home on the 25th February 2001, the Nation mourns the loss of this great cricketer and even greater Australian.