Donald Duck's relation with Cricket

“Hiya, toots!

Today is the birthday of one of the most famous Disney characters  – The Donald Duck. One of the most popular characters of the animated world made his debut today (June 9, 1934) in the animated movie ‘The Wise Little Hen.’ The mischievous and temperamental personality has appeared in over 225 films and is counted amongst 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time.

Every comic book character has an origin story; some real and some fictional. Batman shared many personality traits with American president Theodore Roosevelt while the Caped Crusader’s oldest, deadliest and the most famous villain, ‘The Joker’ was inspired by yesteryear Hollywood actor Conrad Veidt. The Supreme Ruler of the planet Apokolips and a powerful foe of Superman ‘Darkseid’ was based on Adolf Hitler.

But what connection does the anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet who typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a black, red or blue bow tie has to do in a piece relaetd to cricket? He has a very special connection with our favorite sport.

The origin of Donald Duck’s name was inspired by Australian cricket legend Donald Bradman. (Cheers to the Australians!)

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

It’s actually unbelievable but the story goes like this

In 1932, Bradman and the Australian team were touring North America for a Goodwill Tour of Canada after the nasty battle of the “Bodyline Tour.” The ‘Invincibles’ played in Canada, in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, with trips to New York, Detroit, Chicago and California. The presence of the Bradman and his troops created a lot of buzz in every corners of the then developing country.

‘The Don’ scored a whopping 3777 runs at 102.08. It was sort of usual for anyone who followed cricket. However, the fact that caught people’s attention was the duck he registered against New York West Indians. This naught is perhaps is the second most famous naught of his career (he had 7 ducks in his 52 Test career) and became the reason of the greatest Australian becoming the inspiration for another great character.

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The legendary American animator, Walt Disney, at that time, was in the process of creating a friend for Mickey Mouse when he possibly read about Bradman’s dismissal in the papers and decided to name the new character “Donald Duck.” The rest, as they say, is history.

The character went on to become a cult figure in the comic world. He became the perfect comic foil to another vintage comic character Mickey Mouse and appeared in various comic strips, movies, TV series video games and even Christmas Carol. He has even won one Oscar!

But, the Donald Duck Universe could have been never come to the existence or say could have been in some different avatar had our very own legend not visited the country at that time.

Happy Birthday, Donald Duck!