By DPA,
Sydney : Australians Wednesday marked the centenary of the birth of Don Bradman, the nation’s best-known son and a cricketer many believe is the greatest sportsman who ever lived.
Bradman, who died in 2001 at the age of 92, amassed 28,067 first-class runs in a 20-year career with 117 hundreds and 69 fifties.
His Test average was a stupendous 99.94, making him twice as good as his nearest rival and arguable beyond a class of dominant competitors that contains golfer Tiger Woods, swimmer Michael Phelps and cyclist Lance Armstrong.
“I’m not aware of any other sport which has one competitor so far above any other performer,” Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting said. “At every Olympics plenty of records are broken – Bradman remains unassailable.”
Bradman, who was also a world-class golfer, tennis player and billiards player, in the 1930s helped Australia forge its national identity by leading the team to 34 consecutive victories in England, its former colonial master.
English sportswriter Frank Keating wrote: “There can be no shred of doubt that cricket batsmanship’s Don Bradman is all history’s untouchable, unarguable champ of all champs… (whose) indelible figures still make pygmies of every rival past, present and, surely, future.”