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Aussie cricketers 'couldn't stand' Bradman

Aussie cricketers 'couldn't stand' Bradman

Retired World Series Cricket player Gary Cosier has revealed how much hatred was aimed at legendary cricketer Donald Bradman during the 1970s and early 80s.

Cosier told Fox Sports of an incident during the 1977 Centenary Test that illustrated how poorly Bradman was received within the team.

"The thing that hasn't been written before is that during the 1977 Centenary Test at our pre-match gathering, Rod Marsh and a few other players were just so harsh on Bradman," Cosier said.

"We were there to play against the Poms the next day and Sir Donald got as big a serve as any of the Englishmen did - probably a lot more.

"There was an intense, I don't know if hatred is the right word, but dislike (for Bradman).

"Plenty of the players were carrying on about Bradman and saying they couldn't stand him. As long as Bradman was alive, they thought he kind of ran Australian cricket, and they didn't like that."

59-year-old Cosier was left on the sidelines during Kerry Packer's cricket revolution, being denied a breakaway cricket contract offered to many of his team mates.

Cosier believes the real battle was between Packer and Bradman, and that the cricket revolution was partially fuelled by the players' dislike of Bradman.

"Between Kerry Packer and Don Bradman there was never going to be a coming together of the minds," Cosier said.

"One would have been completely as steadfast in their belief as the other one.

"What Packer was asking for from the cricket establishment I think was reasonable."

Now running a prestigious golf club in Brisbane, Cosier insists he's not bitter about the secret nature of the breakaway cricket contracts.

"If that was what had to be done I didn't have a problem with being excluded in that manner - because that was what they were instructed to do," Cosier said.

Sir Donald Bradman died in 2001 and was one of the first inductees into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.