Submitted by aarAdmin on Tue, 08/13/2019 - 00:00
Two cricketing items streaked the field at Leski Auctions August sporting memorabilia sale in Melbourne.
One was former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg’s yellow rebel tour Test team cap (lot 241), which sold for $6500, and the other the first membership badge issued by the Melbourne Cricket Club (lot 48) – knocked down for $5000 on a $3000-$4000 catalogue estimate.
Hogg played 38 Test matches and 71 One Day Internationals, taking 123 Test wickets at an average of 28.47.
He is best remembered for his 41 wicket haul in his first six Tests during the 1978-79 Ashes series.
Towards the end of his career, Hogg signed up for two rebel tours to South Africa while apartheid was still in force – the first in 1985-86 and the second 1986-87.
On the first tour he took 21 wickets at an average of 24.52 and on the second 22 wickets at 20.1.
Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian Test team cap (lot 246) also attracted plenty of attention and was knocked down for $3200.
A prolific batsman, Gavaskar represented India between 1971 and 1987 playing 125 Test matches and scoring 10,122 runs at an average of 51.12.
An antique riding crop topped with a horse’s head and engraved “Tasmanian Turf Club 1897” (lot 466) changed hands for $2800.
The crop featured a nine-carat gold collar engraved with the words “Ladies Cup, won by Swiveller, Wm Martin 13at 12lbs”. Swiveller also had won the Hobart Cup in 1878 and the Launceston Cup the following two years in succession.
An original photograph of the 1907-08 English Test team in Australia (lot 75), showing all 16 members of the touring party, titled “English Eleven 1907” sold for $2600, while a photograph of the first English tour in 1861-62 brought $2400.
