Wrapped up and kept in a cupboard for 83 years, a rare cricket bat part of Australian history is being donated to a sports museum.

The cricket bat signed by the entire Australian and English teams that played in the infamous Bodyline Ashes test series in 1932/33 has been sitting in Bendigo man John Clancey's cupboard for decades.

Mr Clancey keeps the bat, signed by Donald Bradman, among others, wrapped in a St Kilda Football Club towel.

His father's cousin gave him the bat on his 18th birthday, back in 1966.

"This belongs to you, it belonged to your dad," his dad's cousin told him.

Mr Clancey said the bat had been in the family for 83 years after his father, Bill, won it in a raffle for "two bob" in 1933, when the English cricket team toured Australia.

Mr Clancey's father eventually passed the bat on to his cousin Tony, who played cricket with it.

"It shouldn't have been played with. It got belted around a bit but it never affected the side that the signatures were on," Mr Clancey said.

"So it's in pretty good condition."

Mr Clancey plans to donate the bat to the International Cricket Hall of Fame (formerly The Bradman Museum) in Bowral, New South Wales.

The Bodyline cricket bat has Donald Bradman's signature third from the top right hand side. ( ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky )

'The mother country had broached good taste'

The controversial Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a notable time in Australian history that went beyond the cricket fields to diplomatic levels, creating controversy.

It refers to the "lethal" technique devised by the captain of the English side to take on Bradman's incredible skill as a batsman.

"They developed a theory where there was no limit on how many short balls could be bowled in an over, so they peppered the Australian batsmen with short balls attacking the chest and the head," said sports commentator and author John Harms.

He said this was in the day of no helmets when "survival was paramount", raising questions about the game and whether it was fair play or in the spirit of the game.

Mr Harms said the tactic almost became an international incident, with questions raised about Australia's colonial relationship with England.

"This was seen as 'Well, what are the Englishmen doing here?' We're supposed to be proponents of the English way, of English culture and yet they've turned it on us here and this is not the way of the English gentleman," Mr Harms said.

"The mother country had broached good taste; had broached what the game was about."

The period in Australian history was immortalised in a 1984 Australian television series starring Gary Sweet as Bradman and Hugo Weaving as Douglas Jardine, the English captain.

It was only after watching the series that Mr Clancey realised the full significance of the bat he held in his possession.

"It's just been put away and I don't display it, because if we ever got broken into it would be pretty easy taking," he said.

Bat will be there for generations to enjoy

John Clancey and his wife Ann plan to drive to Bowral to deliver the Bodyline cricket bat to its next home. ( ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky )

It was not until they were travelling through Bowral and went to The Bradman Museum that Mr Clancey's "heartstrings were pulled", and he thought, "This is where it belongs."

"I went straight to the Bodyline area and I couldn't find anything like my cricket bat," he said.

"It just hit me all of a sudden, 'Well, this is where it belongs, this is its home'.

"[If I sold it], someone would buy it as a collector and put it in their pool room or something.

"I'd rather have it placed where it's going to be in a cabinet in the Bowral museum."

After speaking with the curator, the decision was reached that the bat should be part of the display.

"It's donated to them and it will be theirs forever," Mr Clancey said.

He is pleased generations to come will be able to appreciate a significant part of Australian history.

"I just feel my grandkids and their kids and whatever will be able to go and see that and say, 'Well, that was Pop's bat'," he said.

"So I think for all people to visit the museum, it's a lovely piece to look at."