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A baggy green cap worn by the Australian cricket great Sir Donald Bradman has sold for $460,000 to an anonymous buyer at a Gold Coast auction.
Bradman wore the cap during the 1947-48 series against India – his final home Test series before retiring in 1948 with a career batting average of 99.94, earning him the reputation as cricket’s greatest batter.
Bradman gifted the cap to the Indian cricketer SW Sohoni during the series and it remained with his family for generations, never exhibited publicly.
It was sold on Monday afternoon by Lloyds Auctions.
Lee Hames, the chief operating officer of Lloyds Auctioneers and Valuers, called the cap a “holy grail of cricket” before the bidding commenced.
Hames said at the auction that Sohoni’s “dying wish was to have the cap return to Australian shores”.
“It has been hidden for 75 years, that’s over three generations under lock and key,” he said. “If you were a family member you were only allowed to look at it when you were 16 years old for five minutes.”
A spokesperson for Lloyds Auctions said the cap would now remain in Australia and “will be put on display at a prominent museum”.
On the inside of the cap, the names “D.G. Bradman” and “S.W. Sohoni” are inscribed.
Bids for the baggy green started at $1, garnering significant interest from buyers in person and online from around Australia, India and the UK – ultimately selling for $460,000 before the addition of a 16.5% buyer’s premium.
“Cherished in the family collection ever since, this cap links you to Don Bradman’s invincible era and a memorable exchange with the Indian squad,” the cap’s auction description said.
“Australia dominated, winning 4–0 with one match drawn … part of the post-World War II revival of international cricket.”
The series marked India’s first Test tour of Australia as an independent nation.
Hames said Bradman remains “one of Australia’s defining national figures”.
“A baggy green he personally gifted, carefully preserved by the same family for 75 years and still in remarkable condition, is a piece of history with genuine national importance and one rarely seen outside private hands.”
The baggy green is adorned with the Australian cricket coat of arms, with “1947-48” embroidered underneath.
There are 11 known Bradman baggy greens in existence – from an era when Test cricketers wore a different cap for each series, unlike modern Australian players.
Bradman’s first cap, from his 1928 debut season, sold for $450,000 in 2020. The baggy green he wore on his last tour, to England in 1948, went for $425,000 in 2003 – later resold for about $400,000 in 2008.
In 2024, his “sun faded and worn” baggy green sold at auction for $479,700 – a record high for a cap worn by Bradman.
The record price for a baggy green belongs to Shane Warne, which raised $1,007,500 for the Australian Red Cross bushfire appeal in 2020.
