Sir Donald George Bradman
"I've spoken to a lot of people, but not publicly. I don't like publicity of any kind, never have done. And I like it less as I get older."
"...in the times when I played cricket that we were all amateurs, the Australians were all amateurs. And we didn't earn our living playing cricket, we played cricket because we loved it, we loved the game....I didn't want to (sternly) become a professional, I played cricket because I loved it, and not for a living. I think if I'd become a professional, I'd have lost the enjoyment of playing.
"I can assure you that nobody spoke to me about a bribe in any way, shape or form."
"There are so many batsmen who are close to being the same mark. If you asked me who is the best, I'd start off by saying, well, there's George Headley, Everton Weekes, Barry Richards, Graham Pollock, Wally Hammond, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Len Hutton, Denis Compton ... you could go on with a list of them. They're all roughly the same skill, same ability. You wouldn't like to pick the best of them. But I could certainly say who was the best cricketer I saw, the best all rounder, and that was Gary Sobers. I think he was unquestionably the best cricketer I set eyes on."
"I asked my wife to come look at SACHIN TENDULKAR ... now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this fellow is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on the television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two .... I can't explain it in detail. To me it's his compactness, his technique, his stroke production, it all seemed to gel as far as I was concerned ... that was how I felt."
"Politics never appealed to me. Nothing would ever have persuaded me into going into politics ... I was asked by the Labor Party, I was asked by the Liberal Party if I would accept nomination for a particular seat, and in most cases I said no, politics doesn't appeal to me. ... I just didn't like it, politics and the lifestyle doesn't appeal to me."
"It was certainly the best Australian side that I played with, and it was not unreasonable to say that it was the best Australian side that was put together ... Very happy side. Err, I think I felt that because I was more or less like a grandfather, I had my 40th birthday on the tour...the boys seemed very pleased to have me in charge, I had no worries with any of them on the tour. In previous tours I might have an argument with a young fella on how to play the game, but not in '48, they seemed happy to have me as the grandfather.
"If I had to put it into one word? 'Integrity'." BRADMAN'S MOTTO: quote from Lord Harris former England captain and ambassador to India: 'You do well to love cricket, because it is more free from anything sordid, anything dishonorable than any game in the world. To play it keenly, generously, self-sacrificing is a moral lesson in itself, and the classroom is God's air and sunshine. Foster it, my brothers, so that it may attract all who find the time to play it, protect it from anything that will sully it, so that it may grow in favour with all men." And that was my creed, I commend that to everybody."