Bradman baggy green cap sets record fee at auction

A ‘baggy green’ cap worn by Don Bradman during a series against India in 1947-48 has been sold for A$460,000 (£232,000) at auction, fetching the highest price for a cap worn by the legendary Australian batter.

Bradman had given the cap to Indian cricketer Sriranga Wasudev Sohoni, whose family looked after it for the past 75 years.

The baggy green cap is worn by Australian players for Test cricket.

In Bradman’s era players were given a new cap for each series, but now Test debutants are awarded a cap which they retain for their entire career.

The cap Bradman gave Sohoni, one of 11 he wore that are known to exist, has never previously been on public display.

“That’s over three generations under lock and key. If you were a family member you were only allowed to look at it when you were 16-years-old for five minutes,” said Lee Hames, the chief operating officer of Lloyds Auctioneers and Valuers, who held the auction.

The cap was sold to an anonymous bidder and will be kept on display at an Australian museum.

The cap, which has ‘D.G. Bradman’ and ‘S.W. Sohoni’ inscribed on the inside, is in good condition.

The price paid for the cap, once a 16.5% buyer’s premium of A$75,900 is added, totals $535,900, greater than the previous record holder, a baggy green from the same series that was sold in 2024.

That cap was sun-faded and insect-damaged, but fetched A$479,700, including the buyer’s premium, at auction.

Bradman, who died aged 92 in 2001, is widely regarded as cricket’s greatest-ever batter and averaged 99.94 across his 52-match Test career.

The series against India was his last on home soil and he scored 715 runs in six innings at an average of 178.75 – with three centuries, including his 100th first-class ton, and a double-hundred – as Australia won 4-0.

India were also playing in their first international cricket tour as an independent country.

Sohoni, an all-rounder who played four Tests for India, died in 1993 aged 75.