Four valuable cricket bats signed by Australian batting great Sir Donald Bradman have been stolen from a sports shop.

Shop manager Graeme Flesfadar said the bats were part of a rare set of memorabilia and were irreplaceable. Thieves had clearly targeted them specially.

"They knew exactly what they were after. They didn't touch the till," he said, saying the set was being kept for his children. It was being put aside for my kids. I just want it back. Money is not going to replace it."

Bradman, who died in 2001 at the age of 92, is regarded as the greatest batsman to have ever played the game. He ended his career with a Test average of 99.94 in his 20 years of playing international cricket for Australia between 1928 and 1948.