Bradman Museum still special for Lehmann

Lehmann, then an uncapped Sheffield Shield batsman who had served as 12th man for Australia’s Test team the previous summer, was a member of an invitational Bradman XI team that took on Graham Gooch’s touring England line-up at Bowral during the 1990-91 Ashes summer.

Not only did the then 20-year-old Lehmann top-score in that match with 112 off 116 balls, he briefly batted alongside then New South Wales batsman Trevor Bayliss who was to go on and become – like Lehmann – an international coach with Sri Lanka and then England.

And who piloted the latter to an Ashes triumph over Lehmann’s lads in the UK last year.

“It’s good to be back, I haven’t been here since 1990,” the Australia coach recalled yesterday after his ODI squad had been given a guided tour of the Museum at Bowral Oval that in addition to hosting an array of historic memorabilia is also home to the International Cricket Hall of Fame.

“It’s just something a little bit different and logistically it worked well.

“Catching a bus (after Wednesday’s ODI match against India in Canberra to Sydney where the final VB Series game is scheduled for Saturday) we could just do a little detour and we could spend an hour there learning about a whole lot of different things. 

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“Apart from Sir Donald Bradman it’ about the game, and the history and tradition and all the great players – both men and women – for us and also hopefully also learn about a bit about themselves while they’re having a look at Bowral.”

“It was a bit of education about the history of the game and obviously Don Bradman is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to have played the game.

“Well there’s no ‘if’ – he was.

“For us to get a bit of background of where he came from, how he began, how the game of cricket began – it’s an amazing museum that goes through all the different eras right around the world, and the three formats that we play now.

“So for our one-day guys to go there and get a tour was pretty special.

“I loved it, and I know the staff did and the players did.”

Set alongside the bucolic cricket oval at Bowral, where Bradman grew up before his cricket path led him to conquer all comers playing for New South Wales, South Australia and his country, the venue that hosts the Museum has also showcased the skills of many other cricket other legends.

From the first recorded match of significance in 1887 when a local Berrima team tackled an invitational England line-up made up from their touring party, on a day when Bowral was so wet that the ground’s sodden pitch was covered with canvas matting.

“Soon the English costumes were in a deplorable condition of besmattered mud, the outfielders having to run through water over their boots,” a report of the abbreviated game noted.

Four years later, another England invitational team led by the legendary WG Grace trounced a Bowral opposition that was bowled out for 77 and 76 even though the home side was allowed to field 24 batsmen in each innings across two days.

Since then, Bowral Oval has been used for New South Wales trial games, second XI matches in the ACB Cup (a forerunner to today’s Toyota Futures League), once regular fixtures between touring England teams and a hand-picked Bradman XI and even a World Cup warm-up match for South Africa in 1992.

That was also abandoned due to wet weather after just two and half overs were bowled.

Among the other global stars to have paid homage to Bradman’s heritage by playing the game he came to dominate in the town he once called home are Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Michael Clarke, Mike Atherton, Brendon McCullum and Brad Haddin who made 216 for the NSW Colts in 1998. 

In recent years, the global cricket focal point in NSW’s Southern Highlands has become home to regular top-level women’s matches – the most recent being the 2014 ODI between the world champion Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars – and under-age championship fixtures.

Including last year’s under 16 internationals between Australia and Pakistan - that featured Steve Waugh’s son, Austin – and, in 2006, matches in the national under-16 titles that saw young Tasmanian James Faulkner batting at number nine and bowling first-change.

Current Australia captain Steve Smith also recalled being involved in a match in the shadow of The Don at Bowral Oval, in a NSW City v Country under-17s match of which he claimed to have sketchy recollection.

“I remember I got hit for quite a few sixes on quite a small boundary,” Smith said yesterday after touring the museum where he tried his hand at hitting a ball thrown against a round tank stand as Bradman had done to hone his hand-eye skill,s and got his hands on one of the Don’s original bats. 

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“I think I got a few runs – I might have got retired on 70-odd so unfortunately couldn’t post three figures.

“It’s great that we were able to visit the Bradman Museum, I think we were the first Australian (men’s) sided to do that in 26 years.

“Seeing so much of the history of cricket, memorabilia from all round the world.

“I got shown one of the bats (Bradman used), it was quite small and I reckon if you taped three or four of them together you might get about the size of David Warner’s (current) bat.

“They (bats) certainly weren’t as big, back in the day (of Bradman) but … I’m sure if you hit it out of the middle it would still go.”

Apart from Lehmann, the other member of Australia’s ODI squad who might claim to have produced a Bradman-esque innings on the Bowral pitch is off-spinner Nathan Lyon whose home town of Young is less than an hour’s drive from The Don’s birthplace at Cootamundra.

Given the proximity for Lyon, who played his initial representative cricket in Canberra before (like Bradman) making the move to Adelaide (although he has since returned to Sydney), he was the most familiar with the facilities and settings at the historic venue having visited and played there numerous times previously.

But he was a bit sheepish when pressed for details of his personal batting triumph at Bowral, perhaps because his reputation as a runs scorer has dwindled to the point that he now bats at number 11 for his country.

“Apparently that’s the rumour that I scored a hundred here at Bowral, so that’s probably my closest claim to fame at the Bradman Museum,” Lyon reflected as he prepared to re-board the team bus to Sydney yesterday.

“You can get an understanding of the game and where the game’s developed to (by visiting the Museum).

“It’s moved along at an amazing pace but to see that history and what happened before was pretty special and hopefully it inspires some kids out there to play cricket for Australia and hopefully wear that Baggy Green (Cap).”