New Delhi.Australia’s great batsman Sir Don Bradman is no more in this world, but his influence is still there among the cricket fans. About 70 years ago, Don Bradman was the uncrowned king of the cricket world. His statistics show what his game might have been like. Even after 7 decades of leaving cricket and two and a half decades of saying goodbye to this world, his popularity is still quite high. This is the reason why the ‘baggy green’ cap worn during the home Test series against India in 1947-48 was sold for $ 4.60 lakh (about Rs 4 crore 22 lakh) in the Gold Coast auction on Monday.
Bradman had presented this cap to Indian player Sriranga Vasudev Sohoni during that series. Sohoni’s family preserved it for the last 75 years and it was never displayed publicly. Sold by ‘Lloyd’s Auctions’, this baggy green has the ‘Coat of Arms’ of Australian cricket and ‘1947-48’ embroidered below it.

The India–Australia Test series 1947–48 was Bradman’s last home Test series. He then retired from cricket in 1948 with an average of 99.94. He is considered the greatest batsman in the history of the game. India made its first Test tour as an independent nation for this series. The Indian team, led by Lala Amarnath, faced the strong Australian team led by Bradman in a five-match series. Australia won the series 4–0, with one match being drawn.

Describing the cap as the “Holy Grail of cricket”, Lee Hames, chief operating officer of Lloyd’s Auctioneers and Valuers, said during the auction that Sohoni’s ‘last wish was that this cap remain with Australia.’ According to the ‘Guardian’ report, Hames said, “It was kept hidden for 75 years, that is, it remained under lock and key for three generations. It was also kept under lock and key for three generations. After the age of 16, watching it was allowed only for five minutes.”

A spokesman for Lloyd’s Auctions said the cap would now remain in Australia and “will be displayed in a major museum.” The cap bears the names of “D.G. Bradman” and “S.W. Sohoni.” According to reports, the auction bid started at one dollar and was sold for $4.60 lakh amid strong interest from buyers from Australia, India and Britain.

According to it, “This cap, kept by the same family for 75 years, symbolizes the association with Don Bradman’s invincible era and memorable exchanges with the Indian team.” At present only 11 ‘Baggy Green’ caps of Bradman are known. In that era, Test cricketers were given a different cap for each series. Bradman’s first baggy green of 1928 was sold for US$4.50 lakh in 2020, while the cap from the 1948 England tour was auctioned for US$4.25 in 2003.
A “sun-faded and worn” ‘Baggy Green’ of Bradman’s was sold for $479,700 in 2024, the highest price ever paid for a cap worn by him. The all-time record for ‘baggy green’ is held by Shane Warne’s cap, which sold for $1,007,500 in 2020 for Australian Red Cross ‘bushfire’ relief.