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99.94 – the four digits that best describe the remarkable cricketing career of Sir Donald George Bradman, who is widely regarded as Australia’s greatest ever sportsperson, and was lauded by former Prime Minister John Howard as the “greatest living Australian.”
99.94 was of course Bradman’s career Test batting average over 52 Tests, with ‘The Don’ requiring only 4 runs in his final Test innings to retire with an average of 100, only to be bowled for the most infamous of all ducks.
Nevertheless, in the almost 67 years since Bradman’s 1948 retirement no batsman with over 2000 Test runs has come within daylight of the Don’s batting average, with Graeme Pollock the next best at 60.97.
Bradman’s average is 64 per cent better than the next best, with this statistic alone proving how much better he was than any cricketer in the history of the game.
Since the ’40s there have been undeniable technological advancements in bats, protection made available to batsman and the decreasing of the length of boundaries. These factors, in combination with the banning of bodyline bowling – a tactic specifically designed by the touring English side in the 1932-33 Ashes series to curb Bradman’s influence – has resulted in batsmen having a greater ability to post big totals.
Yet despite these assistances no batsman has even come close to Bradman’s average, making his batting feats are all the more remarkable.
So, will Bradman’s batting average ever be broken?
Without the ability to look into the future and observe future batting greats of the game, nobody can definitively say it won’t be. But the developments designed to aid the progression of batting since The Don’s retirement have failed to see any batsmen come within streets of his average and success – including undeniable greats such as Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Garfield Sobers.
Thus, despite further technological advances inevitably making a batsmen’s time at the crease even easier, 65 years of innovation overwhelmingly suggest that Bradman’s inconceivable 99.94 batting average will remain the benchmark.
Bradman transcended what seemed possible in cricket, and history indicates it is highly improbable we will ever see any batsman’s Test average in even the same vicinity as The Don’s.
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