Bradman's debut Test cap was up for auction earlier this month.
Sir Donald Bradman's Australian baggy green has yet again made the news after the first-ever international cap worn by him on his Test debut in 1928 was put up for auction earlier this month. The Pickles auction house reported that the cap has been sold for AUS $450,000 (USD 340,000) which is approximately 2.5 crores in Indian Rupees.
The cap has been bought by an Australian businessman Peter Freedman, who is the founder of RODE microphones in Australia. It was revealed that the cap failed to go under the hammer but was bought by Freedman after some negotiations.
Sir Donald Bradman's 'baggy green' cap from his Test debut in 1928 up for auction
The executive manager of Pickles, Gavin Dempsey, told AFP, "After negotiations, the final bid and highest offer was the $450,000. It's still, for a Bradman cap, on record the highest price paid on the open market."
While the price is pretty high for cricket memorabilia, it is not the highest. Another Australian retired cricketer, Shane Warne, had put up for auction his baggy green and the amount collected had been donated to the Bushfire victims in Australia. Warne had managed to raise AUS $ 1 million (USD $756,000) back then.
In 2003, Sir Don Bradman's last baggy green cap, which he wore in his final Test series in 1948, was auctioned off for AUS $425,000 but the first-ever cap was exceeded the amount by just a bit.
The owner of this baggy green, Freedman, was reported to have spent the US $6 million in June 2020 on a guitar played by grunge rock icon Kurt Cobain. That guitar is now the most expensive guitar in the world.
(With inputs from AFP)