September 25, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1429

MELBOURNE, Sept 24: Donald Bradman’s first Test cricket bat sold at auction here late Wednesday for a record 145,000 dollars (US$121,938), the auction house said.

An Australian bidder acquired the bat, which was signed by the country’s greatest cricketer and the entire 1928-29 Test team and their English rivals.

“This is a record price for a cricket bat and there were several bidders, all of them within Australia, hoping to win the auction,” a spokeswoman for Leski Auctions told national news agency AAP.

Bradman, who died in 2001 aged 92, is Australia’s greatest sporting legend and maintains an unbeaten Test batting average of 99.94 some 60 years after his last match.

Bradman, regarded as the greatest cricketer ever, played his last innings nearly 70 years ago. He scored 28,067 first-class runs at an average of 95.14 and 6,996 runs in 52 Tests with 29 centuries and a highest score of 334.

He needed four runs in his last Test innings, against England at The Oval, London, in 1948 to end his Test career with an average of 100 but was dismissed without scoring.

The bat sold at auction was used on Bradman’s Test debut, during which he scored just 18 and 1 as Australia were thrashed by England. The English won the series 4-1.

Bradman, who was dropped after the match, donated the bat to a competition run by a Sydney newspaper to help raise funds for a children’s hospital.—Agencies