The legendary Don Bradman is considered to be the greatest batsman ever to have played the game. Bradman finished his career with 29 centuries in just 52 Tests and an unbelievable average of 99.94.  Still the question is Bradman the greatest batsman of all time?

A deeper look at statistics reveals something which many are not aware.

1) 72% of Bradmans's runs have come against England:- While Bradman scored 6994 runs , 5028 of those runs,  came against one single opposition i.e. England.  So by then he would have known each and every bowler and their variations very well.

2) Bradman played 37 of his 52 Test matches against England, and just 5 each against South Africa, India & West Indies.  That means for Bradman playing against England would have been like playing against domestic teams in Australia.

3) All of Bradman's 6994 runs have come playing on grounds in Australia and England.  Bradman scored 4322 runs on Australian soil  and 2674 runs on English soil. Not even a single runs outside these 2 countries.

4) In a career spanning 20 years, Bradman played on 5 grounds in Australia and another 5 in England.  That means he knew the pitch and climatic conditions very well.

5) Bradman played in a mere 11 series in 2 decades.

Another thing which helped Bradman in maintaining a high average was that the fielding standards would not have been high as in these days. These days if a ball is in the air for a split second the batsman is gone.  Also if one sees videos of past cricketers, once a ball is hit in the gap, it is a boundary as fielders are not bothered to chase it.  So there were plenty of boundaries those days, and the chances of a batsman getting out were very rare.

Another thing in Bradman's favour was that there was no third umpire or television replays those days.  The batsman always is the beneficiary of the doubt and most batsman in Bradman's era owed their high averages dues to this factor.

Going by the above data, it would not be appropriate to say Bradman is the greatest batsman ever, but would be fair enough to say that Bradman is the greatest batsman of his era.

Regards

Satish