Sir Donald Bradman received the grandest of farewells Sunday night as family, friends and former foes joined ordinary Australians in tribute to a sportsman who changed a nation.

The man rated the greatest cricketer ever was hailed for his humility, integrity and sheer sporting genius by a select 700-strong gathering inside St Peter's Cathedral.

But foul weather reduced the crowd to about 3000 people at the adjacent Adelaide Oval, the scene of many of Sir Donald's triumphs.

Officials had predicted as many as 40,000 people would converge at the picturesque oval but consistent rain yesterday and today shrank crowd numbers.

In a service televised live across the nation, and directly screened in India, Sir Donald's son John - who once changed his name to avoid the glare associated with his famous surname - delivered a moving tribute that celebrated his father's life.

"Never in the slightest degree did he become his own hero," John Bradman told the gathering.

The Bradman family had been "astonished and moved to see he has touched so many lives" in the wake of Sir Donald's death at his Adelaide home on February 25, aged 92.

John Bradman said changing his name to Bradsen in the 1970s was "an extremely difficult time for me" but his father was most understanding. "He never tried to talk me out of it," he said.

"The name change was really a case of like father, like son."

Sir Donald told his son not to revert to the surname Bradman for the cricket great's sake "but in part I did and I know it warmed him".

John Bradman urged people not to treat his father as an icon.

"We mustn't be too serious about him and we mustn't treat him as a religious figure," he said.

"Don't enslave him with worship."

Sir Donald had "foibles and contradictions like the rest of us", John Bradman said.

© 2001 AAP