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Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1932, Page 6

ambitious, and conscious—as well he might be of his own athletic value, he must have been sorely tempted by the attractive terms offered him to desert Australia and play as a professional at Home. To save Australian cricket; from so disastrous a. loss,, cricket enthusiasts here arranged to provide him with occupations sufficiently remunerative, to make up for the chances that he had rejected at ’Home- In tliis way Bradman entered into contracts with three Sydney concerns, Palmers, Ltd., a city broadcasting company, and Associated Newspapers, and these con_ tracts now prevented him from submitting uncQri;ditionally )r to the ruling of the Board 'is play in the tests.. "<t;- —'■■■'• ' IDEAS ABOUT BRADMAN.

I may' say at this stage that a great many people seem to entertain quite mistaken ideas about Bradman and the attitude lie has taken up toward the board. In some quarters he is assumed to be a self-opinionated..young man, rather bumptious and arrogant, or distinctly selfish, and suffering undully front ‘‘swelled head.” I believe tliis conception of him to he entirely erroneous. 1 cannot speak from personal knowledge, but I quote with seme confidence the estimate given of liis character in a recent article by one of the greatest players and captains Australia, ever produced, M.A. Noble. After an enthusiastic description of Bradman as a batsman who lias “over shaclo.ved all the giants of the past,” Noble sums him up in two short sentences : “He is quiet, modest, and intelligent. He fortunately knows his own value, and lias become the greatest cricket personality in the world.” I hope that those who, on entirely insufficient evidence, or on the authority cf others, have hitherto taken a disparaging view of Bradman’s personal qualities will be inclined to reflect seriously on Noble’s panegyric.

Nov/; what attitude lias Biradman taken up toward the Board of Control and-the rule that it has just adopted? Even in Sydney some newspapers have described Bradman as ‘‘challenging” or “defying” the board; but nothing could well be further from the truth. ,x all the numerous interviews that h< lias given to thq.Press sime his return lie has reiterated the same statements —that lie accepts unreservedly the authority of the board, but that lie cannot break the contracts into which lie has entered, and that if the board insists on the observance of its rule in the letter a s well as the spirit, he will! not be able to play in the test teams. And, given all the circumstances of the case, 1 fail to see that lie could say anything else. There is one sentence repeated several times in various interviews, which in Bradman’s interest, ought to be specially emphasised. “Of course,” he told a “World” interviewer, “I want to play cricket; but my contract to write was entered into long before the Board of Control made their ruling against player-writers for the coming season.” This is. literally true and it disposes at once of the suggestion that Bradman is simply contumacious and is prepared to “defy” (the Board of Control. On the contrary, lie has said that lie is prepared to write to the hoard asking permission to carry out his contracts, in accordance with the procedure laid down in the hoard’s resolution. Then it will he for the board to decide whether Bradman shall lake part in the tests or not.