Pace ace says he was in awe of Australia's greatest player decades after he retired
Thommo relives bowling to The Don
Former lightning fast bowler Jeff Thomson says the most outstanding batsman he bowled to was not Viv Richards, Greg Chappell or David Gower, but a 70-year-old Don Bradman.
The 64-year-old wasn’t even born when Bradman played the last of his 52 Tests on the Invincibles tour of England in 1948.
But Thomson says The Don hadn’t lost any of his touch when he faced him in a backyard game in Adelaide in 1978 on a rest day during a Test against India.
“I thought this won’t take long – this little old guy with glasses,’’ Thomson told News Limited.
“I thought I had just better bowl my legspinners as it wouldn’t look too good in the newspaper if I killed Don Bradman in a game of backyard cricket.
“Bradman had nothing but a bat ... no protector, no pads or anything on a green turf wicket.
“I thought ‘Good luck old man you will be dead shortly’.”
But Bradman had other ideas, fearless against arguably Australia’s fastest ever bowler.
“He just belted the first ball and I thought ‘Hmm that wasn’t a bad shot, it must have been luck’,’’ said Thomson.
“I bowled one more ball and then sat aside and watched this guy for 20 minutes flog two young bowlers.
“If you had Greg Chappell, Viv Richards or Ian Chappell in there they would have been backing away because they had no protective gear.
“But Bradman just backed himself to hit everything and I was gobsmacked.’’