During his career, there were many controversies involving Australian cricketer Don Bradman (1908–2001).
During his playing career
Bradman made a rapid rise from playing cricket for his hometown of Bowral in the southern highlands of New South Wales. Aged 19, he made a first-class debut for the NSW team in 1927–28 and first earned selection for the Australian Test side during the Ashes series of 1928–29. A score of 112 in the second innings of the third Test at Melbourne made him the youngest player to score a Test century. However, it was his performances during the 1930 Ashes series that first set him apart from his contemporaries. He broke myriad records (many of which still stand) in scoring 974 runs at an average of 139.
Aloofness from teammates
Bradman had a quiet, solitary off-field demeanour that first drew comment during his performances on the 1930 tour of England. Melbourne journalist Geoffrey Tebbutt, described Bradman's aloofness from his teammates in his subsequent book about the tour. He described Bradman's usual routine after play – Bradman would retire to his hotel room, write and listen to a phonograph. After scoring a world record of 334 runs in the Test match at Leeds, Bradman was given a cheque for £1000 – £75,000 today – by an admiring expatriate Australian businessman. Tebbutt wrote that Bradman had not even offered to buy his teammates a round of drinks, let alone share the money.
His exploits in England made him a national hero in Australia, and he received an overwhelming reception when he returned home. Bradman left his teammates on board their ship at Fremantle to attend welcoming functions in Adelaide, Melbourne, Goulburn, his hometown Bowral and Sydney, all organised by his employers. In Sydney, he received a brand new custom-built Chevrolet. The receptions and the level of adulation from the media and the public "embarrassed" him.
Naturally, this type of focus on an individual in a team game had ramifications. Adding to the criticism offered by Tebbutt, the Australian vice-captain Vic Richardson commented that, "we could have played any team without Bradman, but we could not have played the blind school without [leg spin bowler] Clarrie Grimmett".
Disputes with administrators
Bradman spent much of his solitary time on the tour writing as he had sold the rights to a book. Serialised in London's The Star during August, Don Bradman's Book was published in November 1930. It was a modest work of 50,000 words with a few pages of tips as an appendix. The Board of Control ruled that the serialised extracts of his book were a technical breach of his tour contract, which banned players from writing about the game. The dispute was widely covered by the press, most of which was supportive of Bradman. However, he was fined £50 for the misdemeanour on 29 December 1930.
Proposal to play professional cricket
In the spring of 1931, Bradman seriously contemplated playing professional cricket in England with the Lancashire League club Accrington. The media in England and Australia hotly debated the consequences of a move that would end Bradman's Test career. Bradman was advised by the Board of Control that if he played cricket in England in 1932, it would be another breach of his 1930 tour contract and therefore he would not be considered for Test selection if he went ahead with the deal. Public opinion divided: Australian cricket could not afford to lose him and some thought he was selling his birthright, but at the height of the Depression, working-class people empathised with Bradman. The opportunity to earn over £1000 per annum was very tempting to a young man without a profession.
Eventually, a consortium of three Sydney businesses offered an alternative. They devised a two-year contract whereby Bradman would write for Associated Newspapers, broadcast regularly on Radio 2UE and promote the menswear retailing chain FJ Palmer and Son. The contract was substantially less than the money on offer from Accrington, and it would increase Bradman's dependence on his public profile, thus making it more difficult to lead the private life that he desired. In addition, writing for the newspapers would again bring him into conflict with the administrators.