One of Sir Don Bradman’s iconic Baggy Green caps is set to go up for auction once more. Regarded by many as the greatest batsman of all time, Bradman wore this cap during his final series in Australia in the 1947-48 season.
According to British media outlet Daily Mail, the world-renowned auction house Bonhams will auction Bradman’s Baggy Green next week. The cap will be displayed at Bonhams’ Sydney office and is expected to fetch around 390,000 Australian dollars (equivalent to approximately 30.3 million Bangladeshi taka).
If the cap sells for this amount or close to it, it still won’t become the most expensive cricket memorabilia.
In the 1947-48 season, Bradman played his final home series against India. He scored 715 runs in the series at an astonishing average of 178.75, including one double century, three centuries, and an unbeaten fifty across six innings. At the end of the series, Bradman gifted the Baggy Green to Pankaj Gupta, the manager of the Indian team. Gupta, in turn, gave it to the team’s wicketkeeper, Prabir Kumar Sen (commonly known as Khokon Sen), who was born in Brahmanbaria, now in Bangladesh.
Over time, Bradman’s 1947-48 Baggy Green passed through various hands before being auctioned for the first time in 2003. It sold for 425,000 Australian dollars (approximately 33 million Bangladeshi taka today). Since then, it has been on loan at the Bradman Museum in Bowral, New South Wales.
Previously, another Baggy Green belonging to Bradman was auctioned. This was from his debut Test in 1928. In December 2020, Australian billionaire Peter Freedman purchased it for 450,000 Australian dollars (34.9 million Bangladeshi taka).
