Donald Bradman's first Test cricket bat sold at auction here late Wednesday for a record 145,000 dollars (121,938 US), 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. 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.
source: www.cricbuzz.com
SYDNEY: Unfavourable stats stare at Ricky Ponting when he sits down to plan his strategy for the four-Test series against India. The Australian captain knows that it would take some doing to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this time around.Ponting is leading a side with only four players of his 14-member squad having played Test cricket in India. But he has the best record of all Australian captains. In 44 Tests he has lost only four Tests, importantly two of them have been against India. One of these was the only match he played on the previous Test tour four years ago, reports The Australian.Ponting missed the first three matches on the 2004 tour through injury and Adam Gilchrist led the Australia side to cross what Steve Waugh said was the 'Final Frontier' by winning the first Test series in India for 35 years. Ponting led in the last Test only to lose narrowly on a dreadful pitch.The other loss against India under Ponting came during the third Test last summer in Perth before Australia drew the final Test in Adelaide to seal a difficult 2-1 series victory. 
