July 18, 2008	Friday	Rajab 14, 1429

DARWIN (Australia), July 17: Four bats signed by cricket’s greatest batsman Sir Donald Bradman have been stolen from a sports venue in the far northern city of Darwin.

Police said thieves broke into the Top End Indoor Sports Centre in the Northern Territory capital between 1am and 3am local time on Thursday and took the Bradman bats, each worth an estimated 10,000 Australian dollars (US$9,800), and other equipment including a bat signed by former West Indies captain Sir Vivian Richards.

Darwin police watch commander Gavin Kennedy said it would be difficult to on-sell the bats because of the profile for Bradman collectables.

“It would be difficult, I would imagine, certainly in this country, but we’ll see how we go,” Kennedy said. “I’ve got faith that we’ll narrow it down and hopefully we’ll come up with some suspects.”

Bradman is Australia’s most iconic sportsman and the greatest batsman, if not the greatest cricket player, of all time.

He scored 6,996 in 52 Tests between 1928 and 1948 at a remarkable average of 99.94 — famously out without scoring in his final innings at The Oval against England when he needed only 4 runs to lift his career average to 100 runs per innings.

No other long-term batsman has an average with 20 runs of Bradman’s or scored centuries with such regularity.

He died in 2001, aged 92. There is a Bradman museum at Bowral, south of Sydney, and a big collection in Adelaide Oval in South Australia, where Bradman spent most of his life.

News of the robbery in Darwin emerged on the day that the State Library of South Australia announced it was moving its Bradman collection, including press clippings, bats and trophies, to the Adelaide Oval, home of the South Australia Cricket Association.—AP