03 November,2022 07:47 AM IST | Adelaide | SS Ramaswamy
A photograph of Sir Don Bradman (left) and England batting great Denis Compton displayed at the Adelaide Oval’s Bradman Collection section. Pic/SS Ramaswamy
A visit to the Adelaide Oval gives cricket lovers the opportunity to visit the Bradman Collection, located inside the South Gate of the Stadium, displaying memorabilia, published action pictures and personal items from 1927 to 1977 of the greatest batsman ever in the history of the game and an Australian sports icon.
The memorabilia was displayed for many years in the Mortlock Wing of the state library of South Australia, of which Adelaide is the capital, before they were relocated to the Adelaide Oval in 2008, Bradman's Centenary year.
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Bradman, born on August 27, 1908, shifted to South Australia from New South Wales in 1934 when he was 26 and made Adelaide his new residence and lived in the City of Churches for many decades with his family before he passed away on February 25, 2001.
The Bradman Collection is a largely pictorial journey through various phases of his glittering career plus personal things like the bats he had used as a player and the musical systems that he had enjoyed listening music on in his long-term residence in Adelaide donated to the state of South Australia. Bradman had learnt his cricket skills as a child in Bowral by hitting a golf ball that rebounded unpredictably off a water tank in his backyard, before moving to Sydney to begin his glorious journey in the game that gave him everlasting fame. There is even a photo of that water tank in his home in Bowral among the memorabilia displayed in the museum. Bradman was a totally self-made batsman and the collection has this famous autographed card saying, "I was never coached. I was never told how to hold a bat."
Some rare visuals of his batting action in Tests are played on two screens to visitors, but they are copyrighted and cannot be shot even on mobile cameras, visitors are informed. The museum is open on all days except those days when events are being held at the Oval and on Christmas day.
