An Australian businessman named Peter Freedman has purchased Donald Bradman or Sir Don Bradman’s debut Test cap for a whopping 450,000 Australian dollars ($340,000) at auction, the second-highest price paid for a cricket souvenir. Bradman is indeed one of the greatest players to have ever stepped onto the cricket field, and his records are nothing but jaw-dropping. The former Australian captain scored 6996 runs in 52 Test matches at an astonishing average of just under 100. Moreover, he scored all those runs at a strike rate of over 70. Hence, the auction of his debut baggy green cap resulted in high bids. Justin Langer Wrote Letter to Sir Don Bradman Seeking Advice for Success & Still Treasures the Reply He Got!
Peter Freedman is the founder of Rode Microphones who, earlier this year, paid 9 million Australian dollars ($6.8 million) at an auction for a guitar used by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Freedman now plans to tour Bradman’s test debut cap around Australia. Sir Don Bradman 112th Birth Anniversary: Images and HD Wallpapers.
“Sir Don Bradman is an Aussie legend. Not only as one of our greatest talents on the sporting field and one of the most revered athletes of all time, but as an icon of Australian fortitude and resilience,” Freedman said on Tuesday as quoted by Associated Press.
“I have some exciting plans for the baggy green that will see it travel the country and shared with sports fans and cricketing communities,” he added. Notably, the price for Bradman’s 1928 Test cap sits only behind legendary Aussie spinner Shane Warne’s test cap which was sold for 1,007,500 Australian Dollars ($760,000) earlier this year.
Although Warne himself decided to auction his cap to raise funds for Australian bushfire, Bradman’s baggy green was auctioned due to criminal activity. Bradman – who breathed his last in 2001 – gifted the cap to a family friend, Peter Dunham, in 1959.
However, Dunham was jailed earlier this year in May for taking $1 million from investors. As he was bankrupted, Bradman’s test debut cap was auctioned under instructions to pay off the accountant’s debts.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 22, 2020 11:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).