SYDNEY: The cap worn by Australian batting great Don Bradman will be auctioned in Sydney on Tuesday, with the tattered “baggy green” expected to fetch up to US$260,000.
Bradman wore the woolen cap during India’s 1947–48 tour of Australia, which marked the touring team’s first Test on foreign soil after independence. Auction house Bonhams said it was “the only known baggy green” worn by Bradman during his most spectacular series.
Bradman scored 715 runs in six innings against the tourists at an average of 178.75 with three centuries and a double century. Australian Test cricketers are awarded dark green caps, which are respected by players and fans alike.
Despite considerable fading, signs of insect damage and a cracked top, Bonham expects the hat to fetch between US$195,000 and US$260,000. Bradman retired with the all-time highest Test batting average of 99.94, and cricket authority Wisden described him as “the greatest ever to grace the gentleman’s game”.
A variant of the “Baggy Green” worn by Bradman during his Test debut in 1928 fetched US$290,000 in 2020 – a then record for one of the cricket legend’s caps. But that was far less than the US$650,000 spin legend Shane Warne paid for the baggy green when he put it up for sale earlier this year to help Australia’s bushfire victims. Bradman died in 2001 at the age of 92 and Warne died in 2022 at the age of 52.