Let's say we get a new Bradman...what happens?

[Flem274*]

Will people be able to believe it or handle it?

I think people around my age will agree Bradman is almost like a legendary hero more than a real cricketer to my generation. We know he's real of course, but if he was a fictional character he would shatter the suspension of disbelief.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I think the New Bradman would cop heat like no other player has. We already have people trying very hard to discredit the achievements of "normal" all time greats (and Bradman himself) but the immediacy of a modern player averaging 100 would draw in all manner of boring people trying to prove he's secretly mediocre.

What do you think the effect on global sporting culture would be? Bradman was running around in a quieter time, before sportsmen were multi-million dollar stars broadcast on telly 24/7. Bradman was talked about, and if you were lucky enough to live in Australia or England, you could go and watch him but otherwise you were **** out of luck and had to read a book or something. A player dominating to the extent Bradman did would be more in your face than Bradman himself was thanks to modern media.

Would we see the New Bradman coming? I don't know if they saw the old one coming, but someone that good would be so advanced by their mid teens they would probably get a test gig like Sachin did yeah?

Finally, would any team with a New Bradman immediately become the best side in the world?

Personally I suspect the only thing holding a modern Bradman from being the "biggest" sportsman of all time would be the relatively smaller stature of cricket in global sport. Because it's almost non-existent in continental Europe, big parts of Asia and America then maybe he wouldn't be as big as Tiger Woods or Michael Schumacher. Regardless of that though I think he would be huge, but also take a very long time to become accepted as the real deal because so many would be waiting for him to fail even after 5+ years.

 

[Pothas]

We would get used to it in the end. Rather like football has got used to Messi and Ronaldo, it just becomes normal after a while. I know Bradman is even more stupid than those two but it would go the same way I imagine.

 

[SteveNZ]

Not a bad discussion at all. Very dependent on where the individual came from, as to whether he was a mega-star.

I have one question though - if new Bradman came from India, would Tendulkar still be considered better than him?

 

[viriya]

He'll definitely be called a flat-track bully.

 

[Spark]

Not a bad discussion at all. Very dependent on where the individual came from, as to whether he was a mega-star.

I have one question though - if new Bradman came from India, would Tendulkar still be considered better than him?

Who knows, because the fundamental lack of intellectual integrity required in "Tendulkar > Bradman" is such that anything is possible under a framework.

 

[SteveNZ]

Who knows, because the fundamental lack of intellectual integrity required in "Tendulkar > Bradman" is such that anything is possible under a framework.

Exactly my point, sir.

 

[Dhoni_183*]

I have a feeling Kohli may end up rivalling Tendulkar in tests and odis so you could say a "new bradman." But he has to go from strength to strength for next 10 years. I can't say we have seen another Sachin yet, he was truly the best. I know this thread is about finding another Don, but many of us don't view him as the best, for me it's whether there will be another Sachin.

 

[Adders]

FMD. Make this bloke go away already.

 

[Riggins]

hahaha omg you couldn't make that up.

 

[cpr]

I have a feeling Kohli may end up rivalling Tendulkar in tests and odis so you could say a "new bradman."

No, you'd say he's the new Sachin. Unless he rivals Bradman, then you'd say he's the new Bradman.


As Spark states, theres such a lack of integrity when comparing legendary players of the past, such as Bradman, to the next generation of great players such as Tendulkar. It reminds me of online IQ testing - anyone can find a criteria set that gives them the result they want, but if whenever you open your mouth all you come out with is ****, then the results have no basis.

 

[Jono]

I have a feeling Kohli may end up rivalling Tendulkar in tests and odis so you could say a "new bradman." But he has to go from strength to strength for next 10 years. I can't say we have seen another Sachin yet, he was truly the best. I know this thread is about finding another Don, but many of us don't view him as the best, for me it's whether there will be another Sachin.

 

[Spark]

The thing about Bradman is that it's just so vastly beyond anything we've ever experienced that it's pretty much incomprehensible by definition. You basically have to take the productivity of Smith/Kohli recently and then multiply to every single series, on average, for the next 15 years to get even a crude approximation.

 

[Flem274*]

Can we talk about the New Bradman pls.

 

[Flem274*]

The thing about Bradman is that it's just so vastly beyond anything we've ever experienced that it's pretty much incomprehensible by definition. You basically have to take the productivity of Smith/Kohli recently and then multiply to every single series, on average, for the next 15 years to get even a crude approximation.

Yeah this is the thing, and why it would be so fascinating for another to appear in modern cricket. I'm not sure if I could process a guy averaging 100. It's like those people who force-crash and restart the ICC games until their batsman has a century.

 

[Eclipse]

I have a feeling Kohli may end up rivalling Tendulkar in tests and odis so you could say a "new bradman." But he has to go from strength to strength for next 10 years. I can't say we have seen another Sachin yet, he was truly the best. I know this thread is about finding another Don, but many of us don't view him as the best, for me it's whether there will be another Sachin.

Kohli will not be the new Bradman just like Tendulkar was never the new Bradman

 

[Adders]

I'm not sure that it is conceivable to get a new Bradman in this modern era of the game. With the amount of cricket played across different formats.......I just don't see it being possible.

If you got a player that could average 60-70 after 50 tests that would be as good as I could ever envisage. Essentially a new Bradman would have to be a test only specialist, as messing around with the mickey mouse stuff would surely have to take its toll on his test game..........and realistically is any player that good gonna turn down the money on offer playing short form cricket to concentrate on tests only?

99.94 will never be touched.........nothing even close to it.

 

[Spark]

99.94 is basically inhuman just as-is

 

[Midwinter]

Imo

A new Bradman would be run into the ground from the start due to the 3 different formats of the game and the relentless need for "promotion" of the game and the sponsors.

The abundance of opposition coaches and experts to be able to endlessly analysis a players flaws and weaknesses via the use of video would also reduce the chances of a new bradman making it very far.
Of course this depends on having the bowlers and fielders etc to carry out plans to exploit any weaknesses thus found

On the other hand

Then you have the selectors policy of resting players which may reduce ability to develop their game.
They picked Bradman when he was 19 or 20, when was the last Australian batsman picked at that age?

Also the injury policy, where player are not picked in case they may get injured, it doesnt apply so much for batsman, but may happen, which may reduce actually games played.

Would we see the New Bradman coming ?
No they didn't see him coming in the first place, remember Archie Jackson was held in higher regard than Bradman at the time.

HTH

 

[Flem274*]

99.94 will never be touched.........nothing even close to it.

They probably thought that back before Bradman did it.

 

[viriya]

Shamelessly plagiarized from Wikipedia on how many standard deviations from the mean Bradman was - beyond any other sportsman in history.

Athlete	Sport	Statistic	Standard deviations
Don Bradman	Cricket	Batting average	4.4
Pelé	Association Football	Goals per game	3.7
Ty Cobb	Baseball	Batting average	3.6
Michael Jordan	Basketball	Points per game	3.4

"The statistics show that "no other athlete dominates an international sport to the extent that Bradman does cricket". In order to post a similarly dominant career statistic as Bradman, a baseball batter would need a career batting average of .392, while a basketball player would need to score an average of 43.0 points per game. The respective records are .366 and 30.1."