The first baggy green cap given to Sir Donald Bradman has sold at auction

The first baggy green cap given to Sir Donald Bradman has sold at auction for a record sum

Sir Donald Bradman’s 1928 baggy green cap has sold at auction : PicCourtesy /Bradman /Museum

The baggy green cap Sir Donald Bradman wore on Test debut has sold for $450,000.

Australian businessman Peter Freedman, founder and chairman of electronics company Rode, bought the cap which was passed in after the initial online auction ended last week.

The week long auction for the cap, given to the legendary Australian batsman in 1928, managed a highest bid of just $391,500.

That was well below expectations from auctioneers who had hoped to attract between $1 million and $2 million for the cap which was presented to Bradman before his Test debut against England in November 1928 in Brisbane.

The current record price for a baggy green was just over $1 million paid for Shane Warne‘s only Test cap.

But the record for a Bradman cap sold at auction was $425,000 in 2003, before this latest sale broke that mark.

Sir Donald Bradman Test debut baggy green was sold for $450,000 Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Bradman had 13 baggy green caps during his career and this one was worn for four Tests.

It was being sold to hep recover more than $7 million owed to 40 creditors by accountant Peter Dunham, who was jailed earlier this year for fraud.

Dunham, a neighbour and friend of Bradman, was gifted the cap in the in the 1950s.

Some of Dunham‘s victims sought access to Bradman’s cap to help pay off the debts.

It had been on loan to the State Library of South Australia since 2003 as part of its Bradman Collection..

The cap is not allowed to leave the country because it is covered by the federal Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act.

It’s understood Freedman, who earlier this year paid $9 million to win an auction for a guitar used by Kurt Cobain, plans to tour Bradman‘s Test debut cap around Australia.