MELBOURNE, Sept 1: Sir Donald Bradman’s first cricket bat will be auctioned off in Melbourne later this month. The bat, which Bradman used in his first Test in 1928, is expected to fetch up to US$120,000.He was dropped after inauspicious debut in which he scored 18 and one in Australia’s 675-run thrashing by England in first Test in Brisbane in 1928-29. The entire 1928-29 Australian team and English who won series 4-1 signed bat.

Bradman donated prized bat in 1930 to a competition run by The Sun newspaper in Sydney to help raise money to endow Don Bradman Cot to Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children. Sydney youngster George Lethbridge won competition by selling most tickets –– 20,000 intotal.

The bat remained in Lethbridge family until now, but son Robert decided on 100th anniversary of Bradman’s birth on August 27, it was right time to auction it.—Agencies