Don Bradman Averaged 99.94 and Second Place Is in the Sixties

Don Bradman finished his Test career with a batting average of 99.94. The next highest career average among established Test batsmen sits in the sixties. In no other sport does the greatest figure lead the field by a margin like this.

He scored 6,996 runs in only 52 Tests, with 29 centuries in 80 innings, meaning he reached three figures better than once every three times he batted. Twelve of them were scores of 200 or more, including two triple centuries, and no batsman has made more Test double centuries. In the 1930 Ashes series alone he scored 974 runs, which is still the record for a single series and has not been threatened in nearly a century.

The margin is the entire argument, and it is worth stating precisely. In most sports the greatest of all time is a few percent clear of the next name: Gretzky, Jordan and Messi all sit within touching distance of a rival on the key measure. Bradman is roughly sixty percent clear. To match him proportionally, a modern batsman would need to average around 100 in an era where 50 marks a very good career.

He walked out at The Oval in 1948 for his final Test innings needing four runs to retire with an average of exactly 100, to a standing ovation from the England team. Eric Hollies bowled him second ball for nought. That 99.94 is remembered as a near miss rather than an absurdity tells you what the expectation around him had become.

The counterarguments are about context rather than quality. He played 52 Tests where Sachin Tendulkar played 200, so the sample is small and he never faced the West Indian pace batteries of the 1980s, subcontinental spin in Asia, or the workload of the modern calendar. Tendulkar scored 15,921 Test runs and 100 international centuries. Brian Lara made 400 not out and 501 in a first-class innings, the two highest scores in the sport. Viv Richards was the most feared batsman anyone faced.

Those are the best players of a fully global era and their cases on volume are real. None of them is within thirty runs an innings, and that gap is not something conditions or workload can explain away.

The verdict: Don Bradman. The closest thing sport has to a settled debate. Tendulkar for volume.