Popularity
Despite Australia's ruthless on-field dominance and a succession of one-sided victories, the touring team drew unprecedented levels of spectator and media interest. Bradman's dominant cricketing stature was a key factor in his team's popularity with the public, especially as it was known that it would be his last international campaign. A leading cricket writer of the time, R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, said "we want him to do well. We feel we have a share in him. He is more than Australian. He is a world batsman." The Australian journalist Andy Flanagan said that "cities, towns and hotels are beflagged, carpets set down, and dignatories wait to extend an official welcome. He is the Prince of Cricketers." Writing later, Haigh opined that "perhaps no touring cricketer ... has been as feted as Bradman in that northern summer". Bradman received hundreds of personal letters every day, and one of his dinner speeches was broadcast live, causing the British Broadcasting Corporation to postpone the news bulletin. Of Bradman's retirement, Robertson-Glasgow said in the 1949 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack: "... a miracle has been removed from among us ... So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal."
As a team, the Australians were greeted by record crowds and gate receipts across the country, even when wet weather curtailed the matches. The record attendance for a Test match in England was broken three times, in the Second Test at Lord's, the Third Test at Old Trafford, and the Fourth Test at Headingley. The 158,000 spectators that watched the proceedings at Headingley remain a record for a Test on English soil.
Off the field, the Australians were inundated with requests for social functions, including appointments with government officials and members of the royal family, and they had to juggle a plethora of off-field engagements, with 112 days of scheduled cricket in the space of 144 days. Three-day matches were often held consecutively with only the traditional Sunday rest day, although their dominance ended several matches prematurely and earned them extra rest days.
Team manager Keith Johnson, the only administrator in the touring party, was flooded with phone calls and letters. Bradman later said he was worried that Johnson's tireless work would cause health problems and that "it was the tribute to a bulldog determination to see the job through". Wisden said "Indebtedness for the smooth running of the tour and general harmony of the team was due largely to the manager, Mr Keith Johnson, hard-working and always genial ... Paying tribute to the loyalty of the players, Mr Johnson said there had not been a discordant note in the party throughout the tour." Bradman said that "no side could have wished for a better manager".
Read more about this topic: Australian Cricket Team In England In 1948
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.”
—Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)
“There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)