Sir Don Bradman’s famous Baggy Green cap from India tour purchased for almost $500,000

Sir Donald Bradman’s famous Baggy Green cap from the 1947-48 series against India has been purchased at auction for a staggering $479,700 (including auction costs).

The cap went under the hammer at Bonhams in Sydney on Tuesday with the hammer dropping at $390,000.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Don Bradman’s Baggy Green cap sold at auction.

It was unclear at the time of writing who purchased the prized item.

The cap has a special place in India’s history for it was their first tour of Australia, and just after they became an independent country.

Bradman scored his hundredth hundred during the tour, which was also the last series he played on Australian soil.

The cap is also the only known Baggy Green surviving from the series, and Bradman gave it to the Indian team manager who in turn handed it to the wicket keeper.

Indian cricket great and Seven commentator Sunil Gavaskar said Bradman was not just cricket “god” to Australia, but India as well.

“Bradman has been an inspiration for everybody,” Gavaskar told 7NEWS.

“And for those in India he was the ultimate cricketing god.”

Gavaskar said his club captain was once playing in Australia and had insisted on meeting Bradman despite the fact the team was not scheduled to play in Adelaide.

“(He) insisted on his host to take him to Adelaide because he said, ‘How can I come to heaven and not meet god?’,” Gavaskar said.

“So he came here, met Sir Don, and I think that for him was the ultimate.

“That’s how (Bradman) was revered in India, and continues to be revered in India.”

He said when Bradman gave the team manager his Baggy Green at the end of the series, that would have been considered the “ultimate prize”.

“Honestly, getting the Australia cap from the greatest is something really special,” he said.

“He gave it to the wicket keeper, I believe, the wicket keeper on that tour, and it is a prized possession, it would be a prized possession for anybody.

He said the tour was “very significant”, because India had never been to Australia and it was immediately after independence.

The cap is over 75 years old but shows no real signs of wear and tear.

Bonhams had expected it to be sold for a minimum of $300,000.

Bradman retired with an all-time high Test batting average of 99.94, and has been described by cricket authority Wisden as the greatest to “have ever graced the gentleman’s game”.

A different Baggy Green worn by Bradman during his Test debut in 1928 fetched over $445,000 in 2020 — a then-record for one of the cricket legend’s caps.

The all time record for a Baggy Green sale was produced when the great Shane Warne’s cap was sold off for over $1 million, after he put it up for sale to help Australian bushfire victims in 2020.

- With The Nightly