Only in cricket did the world await a second coming. In cricket no-one escaped the memory of Bradman and the shadow it cast. Of course he was not God, but in a country where sport was a religion and the Ashes like a holy war, Donald Bradman was a God substitute. It makes no sense to call him a great player. Allan Border was a great player.
Legend is the wrong word, too.
Victor Trumper is a legend. Phar Lap, Bernborough and Ned Kelly are legends. Legends have something capricious at their centre - a fatal flaw in their character, a vulnerability to fate. It's in this, as much as in their ideal qualities, that we see ourselves. Unlike Bernborough, who always left his run to the last minute, and Phar Lap and Ned who died leaving us wondering why and what if, Bradman left us very little to wonder about.