Sir Don Bradman’s bat sold for a whopping $250,000

A bat that Sir Don Bradman had used to score a triple century at Headingley during the Ashes series in 1934 has reportedly been sold at a record price of close to $250,000. The bat has been on display at the Bradman Museum in Bowra for years and is one of the most prized possession of the museum.

The bat is likely to remain in the Bowral museum, now known as the International Cricket Hall of Fame (ICHF), despite it being sold to an unnamed buyer. Rina Hore, a person working in ICHF told Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that the buyer of the bat had made inquiries about the museum’s interest in taking care of the bat and displaying it to the customers.

“For us to be able to continue to display it shows we’ve really built the museum up into being an institution that can care for such treasured items,” Hore said. “It’s a really significant bat for Australian cricket.”

Bradman’s epic 304 at Headingley was his second-highest score in Test cricket. With the same bat, he also scored 244 at Oval against England and was involved in a record-breaking second-wicket partnership of 451 runs with Bill Ponsford, who also managed to score 266 runs.

The record stood tall for several years before the Sri Lankan pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama bettered it and scored 576 against India. Sir Donald Bradman's scarcely unavailable average of 99.94 is still the best in Test cricket.