Don Bradman's 1948 Australian Cricket 'Baggy Green' Cap

A piece of history is up for auction today... if only I had a lazy few hundred thousand dollars!

For the non cricket mad readers... in the game of cricket there is no greater player than 'The Don'... playing both sides of World War 2. and bringing people to the grounds when news spread that he was batting. He had no peer in his ability to make big scores at all levels of the game and led to specific tactics being developed by English Captain Douglas Jardine and enacted in the so called 'bodyline' series in the 1930's.

In a sport where a batsmen's average either side of 50 runs per innings is a fair achievement and special players average 60, Bradman averaged 99.94. Part of the legend is of course that he needed only four runs in his final innings to average 100 but was dismissed for zero [a duck].

The 1948 Australian team swept all before them and were undefeated on an extended Tour and in some 31 first class cricket matches including 4-0 with one draw in the Test Match series v England, becaming known as the 'Invincibles.'

This is the Don's 1948 cap and is up for auction in Melbourne later today!!.

Some of the notable touring party members are:

Don Bradman (captain)
Lindsay Hassett (vice-captain)
Ray Lindwall
Keith Miller
Sam Loxton
Neil Harvey
Bill Brown
Arthur Morris
Don Tallon (wicket-keeper)
Sid Barnes
Ian Johnson
Bill Johnston
Ernie Toshack
Doug Ring
and three or four others

Like any person the legend is larger than life with the occasional story about a catholic/protestant split in the team, Bradman's clash with officials over a newspaper job and later as an administrator.

Former Australian Captain Ian Chappell dared to criticise Bradman for resisting the players attempts to gain greater financial reward from playing the game. Chappell said he thought Bradman would have been more understanding as a former player, that he felt he was treated like a child and as though the money was coming out of Bradman's own wallet!!

I think he mostly likes to be seen as the only one game to speak out more than seeing the issue or the accurate history as being important!! He continues to make media comment in favour of those 'on his team' as measured by ability to down a beer or twelve while there's no doubt he was also an inspiring and successful Aussie skipper.