SYDNEY: Australian cricket legend Don Bradman’s ‘baggy green‘ Test cap sold for $250,000 at an auction in Sydney on Tuesday as collectors contended to own a rare piece of cricketing memorabilia.
The weathered cap — almost 80 years old — having a tattered garment was sun-faded, showed signs of insect damage, and a damaged peak. Australian cricketers are awarded the dark green woolen caps before Test debuts.
According to Auction house Bonhams, Bradman wore this cap during his last Test series on home soil, which was played against India in 1947-48.
The auction session lasted 10 minutes, with the price escalating from $160,000 to reach $250,000 (Aus$390,000). The final amount cost $310,000 after the addition of the buyer’s premium charges.
The auction house said, “It was the only known baggy green worn by Bradman during the series, in which he scored 715 runs in six innings at an average of 178.75, with three centuries and a double-hundred.”
Earlier in the 2020 auction, a different baggy green Bradman wore during his Test debut in 1928 fetched $290,000. The star cricketer died in 2001 aged 92.
Bradman retired with an all-time-high Test batting average of 99.94 and has been described by cricket authority Wisden as the greatest to “have ever graced the gentleman’s game”.
