Sir Don Bradman’s iconic Baggy Green Australia cap has been sold at an auction in Sydney.
The legendary cricketer wore the cap between 1947 and 1948 with the piece of history being sold by auctioneers Bonhams on Tuesday for a price of $390,000, which increased to a fee of $479,700 after buyers premium was added.
Bradman, who played 52 Tests for Australia, returning 6,996 runs, wore the cap during Australia’s Test series against India, during which the Aussie batter averaged an astounding 178.75 across six Test innings.
That had also included four centuries while Bradman also scored his 100th ton – which was described by the legendary Australian batter as his ‘magic milestone’.
It was also the last series that Bradman had played on home soil.
The auction had
The 80-year-old cap had been gifted to Pankaj Gupta, the manager of the Indian cricket team following the end of the series, which Australia won 4-0.
He had passed the cap on to his Bengali wicket-keeper Probir Kumar Sen, who married Gupta’s niece, Reena, in 1948. Sen had subsequently also gone on to represent India at Test level, making his debut on New Year’s Day in Melbourne, taking four catches.
Bradman’s cap is understood to have been hand-embroidered and features a label on the inside that has the cricketer’s name hand-written in blue ink.
Despite the reverence of this collector’s item, today’s sale came up short against the fee paid for Shane Warne’s Baggy Green in 2020, which was sold for $1,007,500.
That auction set a landmark price for any piece of cricket memorabilia with the legendary spinner putting the cap up for sale to raise funds for bushfire relief after being bought by Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn.
Warne’s cap had subsequently gone on a national tour of Australia, visiting schools and cricket clubs, before it had been put on display at the Bradman Museum in Bowral, New South Wales.
It is not the first time a piece of Bradman’s cricketing equipment has fetched a large sum at auction.
In 2021, the bat he used to score a triple-century during the 1934 Ashes series sold at auction for more than $245,500.
Given Bradman’s legendary achievements in the game, the bat was described as ‘one of the rarest pieces of Australian sporting memorabilia’ by Pickles Auctions executive director Gavin Dempsey.
It remains on display at the Bradman Museum.
More to follow…
