The Greatest Player of Every Decade

The 1930s:

Bradman was handy with the bat

Donald Bradman (AUS)

Not exactly a subversive choice, but it should be recognized that even ignoring Bradman, if that is possible, the 1930s was a decade that saw some brilliant cricketers apply their trade.

Legendary batsmen such as Walter Hammond, Stan McCabe, Leonard Hutton and George Headley all had some of their best years in this decade. Furthermore, it was a strong decade for spin-bowlers, as Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O'Reilly and Hedley Verity all continually vexed batsmen on wickets that allowed for plenty of turn.

There was of course also Les Ames, who can be viewed as the first great keeper-batsman. But the quality of these players, and the fact that Bradman was so far ahead of them all, only emphasizes his superiority.

Throughout the 1930s, Bradman averaged 102.77 and converted 25 fifties into 19 hundreds.

The only series where Bradman was brought down to the level of his counterparts was the 1932-33 Bodyline series. Yet Bradman's statistics in this series were still impressive, as he scored 396 runs at 56.57.

Bradman, therefore, stood well above the rest, but not because the rest were lacking.

Perhaps the person who gets closest to Bradman is George Headley. While some dubbed Headley the black Bradman, the West Indian great preferred to refer to Bradman as the white Headley.

Headley averaged 66.71 throughout the 1930s, yet due to playing for a smaller Test cricketing nation, never played the games he might have if he had been English or Australian. Nevertheless, Headley's average against the English was an impressive 71.23, not too far from Bradman's 89.79.

Yet Headley only averaged 37.33 against Australia, facing bowlers that Bradman never had to.

There's no doubt Bradman was the best, but Headley was perhaps closer to him than his statistics may initially suggest.