Daring English plan to use Bradman's technical brilliance to overcome Ashes rival Australia

Melbourne, Dec.23 (ANI): Former English cricketer Tony Shillinglaw, who is regarded as an expert on Bradman the technician, believes that England can use the Australian great's technique to defeat The Ashes rival in the near future.

Shillinglaw believes he has found the secret to Bradman's unmatched record over the course of a five-year research project that used university resources and scientific expertise to analyse closely the tools with which Bradman compiled his 6996 runs in only 52 Tests.

He is convinced that Bradman benefited from using an entirely different motion to others, garnered from his hitting a golf ball against a tank stand with a cricket stump.

Shillinglaw believes Bradman's unique technique was the primary factor in his overwhelmingly superior Test average of 99.94 and argues that it should be taught to youngsters.

Shillinglaw is trying to get the DVD footage into the hands of former England mentor Peter Moores, now coach of Lancashire, in an effort to get a formal endorsement for the Bradman method and maybe even a place for it in the coaching manual.

The archival footage covers 1930 to 1947, much of Bradman's career.

Shillinglaw's principal argument is that the Don had a mechanical advantage over other batsmen due to what he calls a rotary method of batting, shaped at the family home in Shepherd Street, Bowral.

In his crusade for an alternative to the orthodox, he has also sent the results of his biomechanical study of Bradman's technique to Gordon Lord, the head of elite coaching development with the England and Wales Cricket Board, and Graham Thorpe, who is now national head batting coach.

"In the history of cricket, the proof is that, of batsmen from any part of the world who adopt what is coached, none has gone past an average of, what, 60?" he says.

He adds: "That indicates that an average of 60 is the upper limits of what is coached, whereas Bradman averaged 99. How can a little fellow my size, with below average eyesight, be 66 per cent better than anybody else? I feel I've worked it out." (ANI)