Bids for Shane Warne's Baggy Green pass £450,000, more than doubling Don Bradman's record

The leg-spinner is auctioning his Test cap to raise money for those affected by Australia's ongoing bushfire crisis

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Bidding for the Baggy Green cap sported by Shane Warne throughout his 708-wicket Test career has now more than doubled the A$425,000 (£170,000) record set by Sir Don Bradman's in 2003.

Warne announced last week that he would donate the hat to raise funds for bushfire relief after a spate of devastating fires have broken out across Australia in recent weeks.

The online auction is set to end at 11pm GMT (Friday 10am local time), and bidding through the Pickles auction house in Sydney passed A$860,000 (£452,000) with more than 10 hours to go.

The leading bid currently belongs to a Sydney resident known by the initials M.C.

Woooooooow !!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankyou ❤️https://t.co/S5QTBu3ykk pic.twitter.com/uvywnesEKv

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) January 9, 2020

An influx of bidders from the state of New South Wales – where the fires have spread over more than 12 million acres, caused 20 fatalities and destroyed almost 2,000 homes – have sent the value of the cap up by over A$300,000 in the last 24 hours alone.

Bradman's cap had set the previous record for a Baggy Green in 2003 when sold to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? winner Tim Serisier.

However, he later sold it on at a loss in 2008, as it failed to garner as much interest upon its second sale as auctioneer Charles Leski had expected.

The bidding is set to make Warne's cap the most valuable item of cricket memorabilia ever sold, topping the Guinness World Record set by Bradman's No.124.