Cricket mourns as family elder departs

Cricket mourns as family elder departs
DHARMENDRA JORE

MUMBAI, February 26: The news of Sir Don Bradman’s demise came as a stunner to Australian skipper Steve Waugh, leg-spinner Shane Warne and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. All the three cricketers, who had had a rare privilege of meeting Sir Don and sharing with him some of most memorable moments of their life, went down the memory lane on Monday as they paid rich tributes to the late cricketing icon. ‘‘It’s a big loss for the cricketing faternity,’’ Waugh said. The Australian skipper was called by his wife in the wee hours of Monday to inform about the death. ‘‘My wife woke me up at 2.15 this morning and broke the sad news.’’

‘‘Sir Don was perhaps the best batsmen and very humble man. His statistics are phenomenal. I had spoken to him at length about 12 months ago. He was happy about the world cricket and talked mostly about batting and other topics,’’ recalled a visibly shaken Waugh.

Waugh said that his team would send a condolence letter to the Bradman family. When asked if the unfortunate news would have any bearing on the first Test beginning here tomorrow, Waugh said, ‘‘He (Bradman) would have wanted us to play a good Test.’’

An inspiration: Warne
Shane Warne got the news through a call made by a visiting Australian journalist. ‘‘I don’t like being woken up with bad news. It was shocking for me,’’ he said.While extending his sympathies to the Bradman family Warne, whom Sir Don appreacited very much as a great leggie and invited him to his 90th birthday bash along with Sachin Tendulkar, said that a real tribute to the cricketing legend would be to face the Indians with the national pride in the Test series which starts on Tuesday.

Warne admitted that Sir Don’s death had affected the Australian team, but at the same time it will inspire them to play the game the hard way and win the Test series.

Great loss: Ganguly
Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly said Sir Don Bradman was the greatest cricketer the world had ever produced and he was very sad to learn about his death.‘‘It is a great loss to Australian cricket in particular and the world cricket in general,’’ he added.

Indian coach John Wright also paid his homages to Sir Don. ‘‘It’s a great loss to the world cricket,’’ he observed.

Greats remember the Greatest
To Indians, for most of whom cricket is a religion, Sir Don was God and there will be immense sadness all over the cricketing world at his passing away Sunil Gavaskar.

I have been fortunate to play against him. He was the first person to congratulate me after I completed my hundred against his tea Vijay Hazare.

His innings may have closed but his legacy will forever live on in the hearts of millions of Australians Mark Taylor

He was the pinnacle of Australian cricket. You could sum it up by saying he was a great Australian Bill Brown, Sir Don’s teammate.

I don’t think we’ll ever see his like again. People just don’t score as freely any more Mike Gatting

I would have loved to have had the great honour of bowling against him. He was the best Fred Trueman

It is a massive blow to cricket. He had balance, saw theball early and had a tremendous eye English umpire Dickie Bird‘I’m shocked to hear about Sir Don’s death. It was a dream come true for me when I was invited to his (Bradman’s) birthday. It’s a very sad day for me. Not many had the opportunity to meet him and I was very fortunate to do so. He was a great man and I will never forget that experience for the rest of my life. Sachin Tendulkar