His career Test batting average of 99.94 stands without peer in the pantheon of cricket's many statistics, despite a flurry of advancements in the game that have made batting a rather less inexact science than it was 60 years ago.

Australia's foremost cricket writer Gideon Haigh defines Bradman in terms of success, rather than sport.

''He performed a particular task more effectively than anyone before or since; more effectively, perhaps, than any other Australian has performed theirs,'' Haigh said.

There have been countless assessments of Bradman and books written about him, but few, if any, have been able to find a fresh perspective to rival that instantly given by a cursory glance at his set of numbers.

There is, according to Haigh, a tendency to look only mildly into the Bradman story, as much out of reverence as anything else.

''Still the most compelling aspect of the legend is The Average. One hundred is not the maximum possible arithmetic mean score in cricket, but 99.94, with its tincture of human fallibility ... could not have been more exquisitely contrived,'' he said.

''To a generation addicted to measurement and saturated in numbers, The Average is monolithic, unassailable, totemic.''

In recent times a few scholars have attempted to delve deeper and more thoroughly into Bradman's life and career, most notably Brett Hutchins' 2002 study Bradman: Challenging The Myth.

While reverent acknowledgement of Bradman's place in Australian and cricket history will never slacken, it is perhaps time for fresh appraisals of the man.

Haigh likened Bradman to Anzac Day, which after decades of lower profile observances has recently enjoyed unprecedented levels of interest and meaning among younger generations.

''With the freedom to review Bradman's life backwards, we regularly overlook that he lived his life forwards, that deeds seemingly inevitable were achievements of flesh, blood and spirit,'' Haigh wrote.

''Succeeding generations have found fresh and deeper meanings in Anzac Day; Donald Bradman awaits rediscovery.'' AAP