The Don Meets the Babe: The 1932 Australian Cricket Tour of North America

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Fifty-one matches in more than 20 towns and cities, over 76 days in June, July and August 1932 with only 12 players, a round-trip of over 10,000 kilometres, and all for a fee of £100. This was Arthur Mailey's tour of North America.

The Canadian promoters insisted on only one condition - the party must include Don Bradman.

Don Bradman topped the batting averages. In 51 innings he scored 3777 runs at an average of 102.1. He completed 18 centuries including two double centuries.

The party also included other gifted strokemakers in Alan Kippax, Stan McCabe, Victor Richardson and Dick Nutt. One young plkayer selected who Mailey felt was blessed with special talent was Leslie Fleetwood-Smith. Besides Mailey, another veteran who made the trip was wicketkeeper Hanson Carter.

One of the social highlights of the tour was being entertained by the legendary Babe Ruth in his private box at a Yankees baseball game. So the Babe and the Don, the two greatest hitters of a moving ball in the history of sport met.

The tour concluded in Hollywood where the Australians played on and off the field with some of the biggest names of the silver screen - leading men such as Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Boris Karloff, Ronald Colman and Aubrey Smith, as well as show-stopping sirens like Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Joan Crawford and Jeanette MacDonald.

The happy North American interlude was soon forgotten amidst the venom of bodyline. Mailey's 1932 North American tour was the last gasp of cricket's old sporting order.