'Is Don Bradman Still Alive?'

That was Nelson Mandela's first question to an international delegation thatcame to visit him in 1986 during his long incarceration.

Cut to circa 1998. A group of Sydney University academics write to Mandela toinvite him to attend a seminar called, "What Makes a Champion?" Sincethese are pre-internet days, it takes six months before a letter of acceptancearrives.

The academics are delighted. Now tell us, they write back, who do you regardas an Australian champion? Professor Peter Doherty (who also has a Nobel)? OrRichard Butler (of UNO; helped disarm Iraq)? Or Herb Elliott (1500 metresrunner)? Who would you most like to meet when you get here?

"Well, since you ask I'd really like to meet .... Don Bradman".

As Caroline Overington of The Age reported last year, another letter wassent. This time to the Don himself:

"Dear Sir Donald, the most significant person of the century, Mr. NelsonMandela, has admired you all his life. He would really like to meet you. What doyou say?"

'Sorry, no can do".

It was nothing personal. Sir Don was getting on, having just turned 92. Hedid however agree to let Mandela have a picture.

More stories. (Legends? Cricket lore?) Circa 1971. Australia versus Rest ofthe World:

Ackerman: (To elderly gentleman recieving him at the airport whom he hadgiven his bag to carry):
"Are you connected with the Australian board"?
Eldery Gentleman: "Yes"
Ackerman: "Played any cricket?"
Eldery Gentleman: "Yes"
Ackerman: "Test Cricket?"
Eldery Gentleman: "Yes"
Ackerman: "Really? What's your name?"
Eldery Gentleman: Don Bradman

Don Bradman. The most famous Australian name of them all. As Thomas Keneallyfamously wrote, "The only history we were taught was European. Poetry cutout after Tennyson. If we spoke of literary figures, we spoke of Englishmen.Cricket was the great way out of Australian cultural ignominy for, while noAustralian had written Paradise Lost, we knew Don Bradman had made 100 beforelunch at Lords."

Way back in 1934, The Herald had sympathised, "Bradman has to carry onat the high pitch demanded by the idolising populace -- so tyrannical a thing ispre-eminence in the sporting field."

The younger Bradman, his only son John, clearly found it tyrannical too."Whether I go shopping, go to parties, play sport, play at Jazz shows or gofor holidays etc., I am accompanied by constant overt curiosity and comments ...which are related solely to the name with which I was born."

A name - with mass appeal which transcended international, cultural orgenerational divides - he changed to Bradenham to Bradsen in the early 70's. Andthen changed back to Bradman. (As it happens the name may already have beenchanged. Headstones in the village churchyard at Withersfield in Suffolk, whereSir Donald's ancestors come from, suggest that it was originally Bradnam.)

Cut to circa mid nineties. An English team is touring Australia. What averagemight he achieve against them? Bradman ponders for a while, then settles for 67.Surprised gasps. Are their bowlers so much better than in his day, when hisaverage was nearly 100? "Hang on," he replies, "I am 86".

Apocryphal? Maybe. But something we all thought he was capable of.

And then the news today. It was always going to be a shock. It was. For the Don was someone you expected to go on and on.Invincible. Forever not out. Aman not known to get out in the 90's. He "had been suffering frompneumonia before christmas and was hospitalised for a short period, went homebefore christmas and was really trying to recover," as the agencies quotedRichard Mulvaney of the Bradman museum today. "I believe he died peacefullyin his sleep."

He was not yet 93.

Bradman (Sonehow the cryptic "Brilliant Ruler Always Delighted Many ANewcomer" or "Bragging Rights Always Demand Magnificently AstronomicNumbers" that turned up on a crossword page didn't seem to do him justice) was born on 27th August 1908 at Cootamundra, a township in southernNew South Wales, but he was raised further east in Bowral, a small highlandstown which lies close to 100 kilometres to the south west of Sydney.

As a boy he spent hours single-mindedly hitting a golf ball against a brickwall with a single stump for a bat. The practice paid off as Wally Hammond, who captained England inthe 1938 series recalled "On one or two occasions, when[Bradman] was well set, andwhen he saw me move a fieldsman, he would raise his gloved hand to me in mocksalute, and then hit the next ball exactly over the place from which the man hadjust been moved."

On his retirement, Bradman became the first Australian player to be knighted.As John Arlott said"No more were bowlers faced with an apparently insoluble problem".Status as a Commander of the Order of Australia was also conferred upon him in1979, and last year he was named (along with Jack Hobbs, Gary Sobers, ShaneWarne and Vivian Richards) as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the TwentiethCentury. Of the 100 voters consulted, every one gave Bradman their vote. Youdon't get any more unanimous than that. 

We could go on. Quoting R. C. Robertson-Glasgow ("Poetry and murderlived in him together/He would slice the bowling to ribbons/then dance withoutpity on the corpse."), Les Carlyon ("The difference is that Bradmanpulsated and Boycott merely had a pulse") and Sir Neville Cardus, who wroteof an innings that was "cruel in its excessive mastery". But thenthere were many such innings. And we'd be wasting many words.

Modest to a fault, Bradman was once asked to comment on his cricketing career."I suppose I have done a couple of respectable things in my life," hesaid

Asked during a rare television interview in 1996 to explain why his recordsremained unchallenged, The Don struggled for an answer saying: "I saw muchbetter batsmen than I was. Lots of them...they just kept getting out".

What would he like best to be remembered for? "Integrity", saidBradman.

His wife Jessie Menzies, whom he married in 1932, died in 1997. The couplehad two children, John and Shirle; and three grandchildren - Greta, Tom andNicholas.

Wesuspect that the number of such people must have suddenly gone up exponentially. 

Is Sir Don Bradman Still Alive?Yes,he was then, way back in 1986, is now, and shall always be.

The Don had apparently asked that instead of sending flowers, mourners shouldsend donations to the Bradman Foundation in Bowral for a special BradmanMemorial Fund.