A baggy green cap worn by Donald Bradman fetched A$460,000 (US$319,000) at public auction in Australia on Monday, a record price for a cap worn by the Australian cricket legend.
The price paid for the cap, once a 16.5% buyer’s premium of A$75,900 is added, totals A$535,900, beating the previous record holder, a baggy green from the same series — against India in 1947/48 — that was sold in 2024.
That cap was bought for A$479,700, including the buyer’s premium, at auction.
Bradman, who died aged 92 in 2001, had given the cap sold on Monday to Indian all-rounder Sriranga Wasudev ‘Ranga’ Sohoni.
Inside, it bears the inscriptions: ‘D.G. Bradman’ and ‘S.W. Sohoni’.
Back in Bradman’s day the baggy green cap was awarded for each series they played — a contrast to the present day where only one is handed out on Test debut.
Sohoni’s family looked after the cap until it was put up for auction — Sohoni died in 1993 aged 75.
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The buyer requested anonymity but it will go on display at an Australian museum.
“That’s over three generations under lock and key,” said Lee Hames, the chief operating officer of Lloyds Auctioneers and Valuers, who held the auction.
“If you were a family member you were only allowed to look at it when you were 16-years-old for five minutes.”
The series was notable for being India’s first as an independent country and Bradman’s last on home soil.
Bradman made it a memorable one, scoring 715 runs — including his 100th first-class century — as the Australians romped to a 4-0 series win.
Bradman is widely regarded as cricket’s greatest-ever batter and averaged 99.94 in his 52-match Test career.
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