Cricket mourns loss of pioneer Keith Bradshaw

Keith Bradshaw was at his best when taking the game on.

Having represented Tasmania in an era so bereft of success that none of his 24 Sheffield Shield appearances yielded a win, he was integrally involved in his team reaching the final of the 1986-87 interstate one-day competition with a bold cameo innings against an all-internationals WA attack.

Upon retiring from cricket to pursue corporate life, Bradshaw became the first Australian to occupy the secretary's office at the world's most prestigious cricket entity – the Lord's-based Marylebone Cricket Club – where he set about turning centuries of painstaking evolution into dynamic revolution.

And when family drew him back to Australia, he brought with him the pioneering vision he had cultivated in London and oversaw the birth of day-night Test cricket which has since been embraced around the world.

But there was one adversary he could not outwit; one fight that proved beyond his seemingly inexhaustible resources.

And the multiple myeloma he'd battled across countless skirmishes since it was first diagnosed while living in the UK in 2008 claimed his life on Monday night.

"His demeanour was one of quietly, efficiently and enthusiastically completing tasks assigned to him," said SACA President Andrew Sinclair.

"He frequently talked of surrounding himself with a great team. That was in huge part due to his personable approach, leadership style and simply absolute decency to others.

"An extraordinary fighter through his considerable health challenges."

Bradshaw crammed more into his 58 years of cricket playing and officialdom than many in his field of endeavour managed in a full lifetime, yet he was always too focused on the next project to bask in achievement.

A competent middle-order bat and occasional bowler, he seemed bound for a bountiful playing career when he posted a pair of half-centuries against New South Wales – boasting Pakistan hero Imran Khan among their bowlers – in his rookie first-class season.

However, despite peeling off a maiden century against Queensland (featuring Jeff Thomson) a week later, he was unable to maintain that early promise and lost his place in the Tasmania line-up immediately after his one and only Shield match as captain in 1987.

The on-field high point of Bradshaw's career came in Perth that same summer when his 37 off 30 balls lifted Tasmania to a dramatic last-gasp semi-final win over WA, thereby giving them hosting rights for the final of the then McDonald's Cup, which South Australia comfortably won the following month.

He scored just eight from as many balls faced in Tasmania's 86-run defeat in the decider, and liked to joke his contribution to SA cricket effectively began that day at Hobart's TCA Ground.

Having accepted (at age 24) he was more likely to wield influence in business than with bat or ball, Bradshaw completed his degree at University of Tasmania and took up positions with big accounting firms Price Waterhouse and Deloitte, being promoted to partner at the latter.

In 2006, a friend involved in global recruitment in Australia mentioned the MCC was hunting a replacement for retiring secretary-chief executive Roger Knight and suggested Bradshaw might consider applying.

The Tasmanian's only cricket experiences in the UK were a season spent playing second XI cricket for Sussex and an earlier stint in the Lancashire League, during which he made his only previous visit to Lord's – as a spectator to watch Australia get thumped in a one-day international against England.

"We didn't have a lot of money, so we grabbed a few hours' sleep in the car before the game," Bradshaw would recall of that day, adding the awe he felt walking into the historic venue at St John's Wood never dimmed.

On his next visit, two decades later, he arrived in suit and tie for a job interview where he was buoyed to learn the famously self-absorbed club was not averse to appointing a leader from outside the UK.

Bradshaw began his tenure as the MCC's 14th secretary on October 1, 2006 – a day before he turned 43 – and soon earned a reputation in staid English cricket circles for his unstinting energy and inclusive vision.

He championed the introduction of day-night first-class cricket played with pink balls and oversaw the installation of floodlights at Lord's, dragging the venerable 'Home of Cricket' into the 21st Century.

Complementary to that development was the MCC's decision to move the English season's traditional curtain-raiser – in which the Club would play host to the previous summer's county champion – to the UAE where it would be successfully staged under lights.

It was a decision that underscored one of Bradshaw's other professional ambitions – to broaden the game's global reach and promote greater opportunities for international cricket's developing teams.

He also laid out the MCC's rarely used welcome as Lord's hosted a neutral Test between Australia and Pakistan in 2010 when the latter's domestic security situation prevented them staging matches at home, and extended the offer to other cricket nations facing similar strife.

And through promotion of the MCC's Spirit of Cricket ethos and the funding of development programs in expansion markets such as Afghanistan, the MCC gained kudos as an influential voice within cricket and Bradshaw's role grew increasingly significant.

As a member of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by dint of his MCC role, Bradshaw was a key player in the decision to remove men's team coach Duncan Fletcher following England's disastrous 2006-07 Ashes campaign in Australia and the equally ignominious World Cup effort that followed.

The following year, Bradshaw was first diagnosed with the myeloma he would spend more than a decade trying to outrun.

It did not prevent him from pushing for major changes in his dual role at the MCC, most notably an ambitious £400m plan called 'The Vision' that would have increased Lord's seating capacity and added apartment developments along with cafés and public walkways to enhance its year-round usage.

However, that plan along with the proposal for a franchise-style T20 tournament in the UK (in response to the birth of the Indian Premier League) he drove with Surrey chairman David Stewart remained unrealised and Bradshaw announced in 2011 he was returning to Australia.

In the wake of his mother's death and his father suffering ill-health in Tasmania, Bradshaw took up the post of SA Cricket Association chief executive – an organisation similarly steeped in Lord's-like history and conservatism – at a time when Adelaide Oval was undergoing its most profound change.

Amid his regular bouts of chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, Bradshaw guided the SACA's integration to the world-class stadium Adelaide Oval has become and successfully brought his vision for day-night Test cricket to Australia.

In 2015, Adelaide hosted the historic first pink-ball Test between Australia and New Zealand and the day-night fixture has since earned a regular berth in the summer calendar in much the same way as Boxing Day belongs to Melbourne and New Year is celebrated at the SCG.

The new stadium's drop-in pitch – decried by many a traditionalist – has proved the nation's most sporting first-class surface, and Bradshaw continued to support innovations including the introduction of four-day Test matches.

"Keith's contribution to cricket in Australia and the UK cannot be understated," said Cricket Australia Chair Richard Freudenstein. "His legacy is an ongoing testament to a lifetime of achievement in the game.

"His great skill as a cricket administrator was to be an innovator yet appreciate and understand the importance of tradition.

"He had the clearest of vision when it came to strategy and yet the lightest of touch when it came to empowering his staff to carry it out."

As the global COVID-19 pandemic delivered an existential threat to sporting organisations last year, Bradshaw found himself fighting a two-front war as the multiple myeloma aggressively returned.

After bouts of hospitalisation over the preceding year, he revealed via a SACA statement on June 16 he was taking indefinite sick leave to battle the cancer that had spread to his spine and brain and robbed him of his ability to walk.

Despite his brave vow to win the fight and return to work, Keith Bradshaw died on Monday, November 8.

He is survived by his much-loved fiancée Helen and children, Juliet, Eliza, Donald, Jack and son-in-law Patrick.

A celebration of Bradshaw's life will be held at the Adelaide Oval in the coming week, with details to be announced.