The baggy green is synonymous with Australian Test cricket,but how did it recede from being just another piece of kit to a valuable commodity?What a baggy green cap is really worth – the stories behind the sales
Sir Donald Bradman, Richie Benaud and Ian Chappell didn’t hold on to a single one between them, and Bill O’Reilly held his so dear that it adorned his casket when he died and having had an image of his first one tattooed onto his backside,Colin “Funky” Miller later sold another at a memorabilia auction. Australia’s baggy green cap, it’s fair to say, or has always meant different things to players who enjoy worn them.
The narrative of its rise to the status of national icon during the captaincy reigns of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh is now well-established but among the many ironies that surround the relatively newfound deification of Australian cricket’s national cap is that the elaborate rituals that now surround its presentation to debutantes enjoy also served as the primary catalyst driving up its value as a prized commodity in auction houses around the world.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com