Tea and Scotch with Bradman by Roland Perry

Author:Roland Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC Books
Published: 2019-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Nelson Mandela’s Hero

In 1971, I was a journalist at The Age, and I recall Peter McFarline, a notable sports writer, returning from the ACB media conference and slamming a file on his desk.

‘Bloody Bradman!’ he said, loud enough for me to hear from a few metres away.

‘What’s wrong, Peter?’ I asked.

He told me about the conference and how Bradman had made the statement, turned on his heel and disappeared into the ACB building.

‘He wouldn’t take any questions,’ McFarline complained. ‘He makes a bloody important statement like that and won’t give any explanation!’

Just about every top editor in Australia had Bradman’s phone number. He made himself available, sort of. Everyone knew you did not waste his time. The reason for a call had to be valid and ‘important’, otherwise you would receive short shrift and risk not having access if something big happened and you wanted his comment.

The reverse was interesting. If Bradman wished to make a statement about a cricketer’s milestone or the passing of a star, he would call one of the big dailies in Melbourne or Sydney and his comments would be taken down and published. I remember sitting at my desk and watching editors running across the floor in a commotion. I asked an editor what was going on.

‘Bradman’s on the line,’ he replied in a reverential tone. ‘We can’t find [Graham] Perkin [The Age editor-in-chief].’

In 1959, Perkin had built trust with Bradman after first interviewing him in the lounge of Bradman’s Adelaide home. He then observed that Bradman had been an ‘imponderable personality’ through his entire cricket career.

‘No one knew what he was really like,’ Perkin wrote, ‘though many thought they did . . . He was an ordinary small man [of 51 years] in a grey suit. But as he sipped his tea, another impression came through strongly . . .’ Perkin imagined that if his subject put on flannels and pads and walked out to the wicket that day, ‘he would surely get a fast hundred’.

*

On the occasion of Bradman’s one-line apartheid statement, Perkin suggested McFarline ring Bradman. In his eagerness to speak to him, McFarline was rude to Jessie. Bradman told him off for that and refused to talk to him. Discourtesy to his wife was a major sin in Bradman’s eyes.

In South Africa, Vorster vented his anger publicly against Bradman while the main anti-apartheid organisation, the (black) African National Conference, rejoiced.

Burgmann, unaware that Bradman had met Vorster, Wilson and Heath, was again surprised.

‘We expected him to use the excuse of not being able to guarantee the safety of the cricketers,’ she said, ‘but he made this wonderful statement, which pleased us [the protestors].’

Burgmann and Rivett congratulated him.

‘I appreciate the compliments,’ he wrote to Rivett in September 1971, ‘but, no offence meant, I’m not really in the mood to feel elated. I’ve seen too much of both sides of the issue [which included the impact on the banned, innocent white cricketers], the good and bad of each. I was not cut out to be a politician or banner-carrier.

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