SYDNEY, Aug 27: Australians on Wednesday marked the centenary of their greatest sporting hero, cricketer Don Bradman, by celebrating the fact his unbeaten record is still untouchable 60 years after he quit the sport.

Bradman, who died in 2001 aged 92, played his last match in England in 1948 and retired with a yet-to-be topped Test batting average of 99.94.

Australian media used the occasion to revisit the legend of the ‘Boy from Bowral’ whose run-scoring feats lifted the hopes of the country during the Depression and inspired generations of athletes to come.

Newspapers splashed images of the small-statured batsman across their pages while television bulletins re-broadcast rare snippets from interviews with ‘The Don’, who loathed his celebrity.

In Bradman’s boyhood home of Bowral, a small town south of Sydney, scores of children formed a massive 100 on the cricket oval on which he first played, and sang “Happy Birthday.”

Australian captain Ricky Ponting led tributes to the global cricketing hero.

“That Bradman made a century on average every time he batted is remarkable in itself, but to realise his batting average is virtually twice as high as anyone who played Test cricket for any length of time shows why he is one of sport’s great stories,” Ponting wrote in The Australian.

Ponting said sporting records were made to be broken, with the Beijing Olympics no exception with the breathtaking feats of swimmer Michael Phelps and runner Usain Bolt. But Bradman’s was an “unassailable” record, he said.

“Of the 2,519 batsmen who have taken the crease in 131 years of Test cricket, Bradman stands alone and untouched,” he said.

Bradman is a massive figure in Australian culture. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke wrote of having two gods, his father and Bradman.

The postal address for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in every capital city is his average, PO Box 9994.

The centenary was the first order of business in Question Time at the national parliament Wednesday, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd praising the remarkable batting average of the man.

Bradman, who was born in the New South Wales country town of Cootamundra on Aug 27 in 1908, first played cricket for Bowral after famously honing his ability by hitting a golf ball against a water tank with a cricket stump.

He made his first-class debut at 19 and by 21 was playing in his first Test series against England, during which he became the youngest overseas batsman to score a double century in that country, making 236 runs in his first match.

By the third Test of the 1930 series he broke the world Test batting record with 334.

Bradman’s prodigious run-scoring ability saw England’s fast bowlers target him during the 1932-33 Bodyline series, keeping him down to an average of 56.57 runs per innings.

But after World War II, Bradman led the Australian eleven who became known as the Invincibles for their undefeated 1948 tour of England — during which they won 17 matches by an innings and four of the five Tests easily.

Former ‘Invincible’ Arthur Morris, 86, who shared the crease with Bradman when the skipper made his final appearance in 1948, described him as “something to watch. Not only a great batsman but a marvellous fieldsman too.”

But on this final occasion, Bradman made no score. Had he scored just four runs, his batting average would have climbed to 100.—AFP