Bransby Beauchamp Cooper (15 March 1844 – 7 August 1914) was a member of the

Australian cricket team The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) an ...

that played the inaugural

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

in 1877. Cooper was born in

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

in what was then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1844. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

as an amateur in England for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

s before moving to Australia where he played for

Victoria cricket team The Victoria men’s cricket team is an Australian first-class men's cricket team based in Melbourne, Victoria. The men’s team, which first played in 1851, represents the state of Victoria in the Marsh Sheffield Shield first-class competi ...

. He was a right hand batsman and

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

and the first Indian-born cricketer to play Test cricket.

Early life

Cooper has been described as "a public-school educated product of the English establishment".Bransby Cooper

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-04-20. He was born in

, the son of Bransby Henry Cooper and his wife Mary. His father was an officer in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

and died in 1857,Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp.121–123.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-11.) his mother returning to England to live at

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

. Cooper was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

where he played cricket in the school XI between 1860 and 1862 where he was coached by

Alfred Diver Alfred John Day Diver (6 July 1823 – 25 March 1876) was an English first-class cricketer whose career spanned the 1843 season to the 1866 season. Diver played mainly for Cambridge Town Club (''aka'' Cambridgeshire) and also played for Mid ...

.Mitchell AT (1892) ''Rugby School Register'', vol.2, p.180. Rugby: AJ Lawrence.
Available online
Retrieved 2020-07-11.)

Cricket

Cooper played club cricket for

Southgate Cricket Club __NOTOC__ Southgate Cricket Club is in Southgate, part of the London Borough of Enfield, England. The club plays at the Walker Cricket Ground, and in the Middlesex County Cricket League. Middlesex County Cricket Club occasionally plays County Cha ...

and

Free Foresters Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' (or nomadic) club, having no home ground. The Free Foresters were founded by the Rev. Will ...

before going on to play

for

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

.Kent's first overseas player
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, 2018-07-25. Retrieved 2018-12-13. He made his first-class debut in 1863 for a Middlesex side against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

before the county club was formally founded and played in the first match Middlesex played after their formation in 1864.Lynch S (2005
The Dhaka-born Aussie, and Rameez's rare dismissal

, 2005-09-12. Retrieved 2017-04-20.Mr Bransby Beauchamp Cooper
Obituaries in 1914, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

''. Retrieved 2017-04-20. He also played for MCC and the Gentlemen amateur side, often playing with

WG Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

who made his Gentlemen debut in the same match as Cooper. He played eight times for Middlesex sides between 1863 and 1867 before moving to

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

and playing nine times for Kent in 1868 and 1869.Bransby Cooper
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-04-20. After the 1869 season Cooper moved firstly to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where he played cricket for

St George's Cricket Club The St George's Cricket Club was originally located in Manhattan, New York it later moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. Its name comes from its association with St. George's Episcopal Church at Stuyvesant Square, Manhattan. It hosted the first intern ...

at Hudson City in 1870, and then to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1871. He played for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 11 matches, including nine intercolonial matches against

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. He has been described as being "recognised as the leading batsman in colonial cricket."Work S (2013
Who was India's first great batsman?

, 2013-07-11. Retrieved 2017-04-20. In the inaugural

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1877 Cooper was expected to be named as captain as Victorians outnumbered New South Welshmen. Dave Gregory was instead elected by the players for this honour.Craig E (2009
Settling the Ashes

, 2009-08-06. Retrieved 2017-04-20. In what was to be his only Test match Cooper scored 15 and 3 runs and took 2 catches whilst becoming the first player to make their Test debut on their birthday.Lynch S (2012
Happy birthday to me

, 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2017-04-20. He helped

Charles Bannerman Charles Bannerman (3 July 1851 – 20 August 1930) was an English-born Australian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he represented Australia in three Test matches between 1877 and 1879. At the domestic level, he played for the New South Wa ...

add 77 for the fourth wicket in the first innings, the highest partnership of the match. In all first-class matches, Cooper scored 1,600 runs at a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 20.51, took 41 catches and made 20 stumpings. His only first-class

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

was a score of 101 made in 1869 for the Gentlemen of the South against the Players of the South; his partnership of 283 runs with W. G. Grace set a record for an opening partnership in first-class cricket which stood until 1892. His ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' obituary said that he batted in a "very attractive style" with "patience and sound defence" and that he was a "fairly good wicketkeeper without approaching the front rank". Grace said, "His driving powers were good, and he could cut very prettily, but it was his patience and defence which made him so valuable." Grace WG (28 June 1890
Forty Years of Cricket
''The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser'', p. 1414. Retrieved 2021-12-16.

Professional and later life

Cooper worked on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. He was in business in both the United States and Australia, eventually becoming a senior official in the Customs Department at Queenscliff and

.BB King of Oz Cricket
''

Geelong Advertiser The ''Geelong Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper circulating in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the Bellarine Peninsula, and surrounding areas. First published on 21 November 1840, the ''Geelong Advertiser'' is the oldest newspaper title in Victor ...

'', 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2020-07-11. After marrying Helen Wilkinson in 1875 Cooper played less cricket. The couple had three daughters. They were living in Queenscliff when he died in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

in 1914 aged 70. He is buried in the

Geelong Eastern Cemetery Geelong Eastern Cemetery is a cemetery located in the city of Geelong, Victoria in Australia. The cemetery dates back to 1839. 141 Ormond Road, The Eastern Cemetery Gatehouse is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. Notable interments * ...

.Cooper Bransby Beauchamp
Geelong Cemeteries Trust. Retrieved 2016-09-02.

References

* Pollard, J (1982) ''Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players''. Sydney: Hodder & Stoughton. () * Pollard J (1995) ''Australian Cricket: 1803–1893, The Formative Years''. Sydney: The Book Company. ()

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Bransby 1844 births 1914 deaths Australia Test cricketers Kent cricketers Middlesex cricketers Victoria cricketers Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Australian cricketers Cricketers from Dhaka Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of the South cricketers Gentlemen cricketers North v South cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers R. D. Walker's XI cricketers Wicket-keepers