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 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 after it was passed in when 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 $1m and $2m for the cap which was ­presented to Bradman before his Test match debut against ­England in Brisbane.

The record price for a baggy green is just over $1m, paid for Shane Warne’s only Test cap.

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

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

It was being sold to help recover more than $7m 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 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.

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

NCA NEWSWIRE