Jeremy Paul Bray (born 30 November 1973) is an Australian-Irish

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

coach and former player. He played as a left-handed top order batsman and part-time wicketkeeper. He grew up in Australia and played for the Australia under-19s and briefly for

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 ...

, later moving to Ireland and playing ODIs and

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

s for the national team between 2004 and 2009. Since retiring from playing he has coached Ireland women,

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, and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

Playing career

Bray was the Player of the Championships at the 1992–93 Australian Under-19 Cricket Championships in Brisbane and was selected for the Australian Under-19 side, playing two Youth Tests and one Youth ODI. He also played one

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

match for

. Bray played grade cricket in Sydney for the St. George Cricket Club with his fellow Irish World Cup teammate David Langford-Smith, where he was well known for his aggressive batting approach. Nicknamed "Words" for his talkative nature, Bray later moved to Ireland to continue his cricketing career. After moving to Ireland, he made his debut for the

Ireland cricket team The Ireland cricket team represents all of Ireland in international cricket. The Irish Cricket Union, operating under the brand Cricket Ireland is the sport's governing body in Ireland, and organises the international team. Ireland participa ...

in a

C&G Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

match against

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. He has since gone on to play for Ireland on over 50 occasions. Before Ireland was granted ODI status he played in the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in 2004 and 2006 in addition to the

2005 ICC Trophy The 2005 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament held in Ireland between 1 July and 13 July 2005. It was an international one-day tournament played over 50 overs per side between 12 Associate Members of the International Cricket Council. It served a ...

. In the final of the

2006 ICC Intercontinental Cup 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

against Canada, Bray opened the innings for Ireland and made 146. His innings was particularly aggressive as in his 202 run opening stand his partner

William Porterfield William Thomas Stuart Porterfield (born 6 September 1984) is an Irish former cricketer and a former captain of the Ireland cricket team. He played first-class cricket for Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. A left-handed batsman, he played for Ir ...

made just 54. On 30 January 2007, he became the first ever Irish cricketer to score an ODI century with an innings of 116 against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Six weeks later, he scored 115 off 137 balls, on his and Ireland's

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

debut, against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. The game finished in a tie and he was awarded man of the match for his performance. After a two years out of the team, Bray was recalled to the Ireland squad when captain

was unavailable due to commitments with

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always ...

and after

Fintan McAllister Fintan Patrick McAllister (born 9 February 1987 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland) an Irish cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. He has represented the Ireland national side, Ireland national under-19 cricket team in 2006, and ...

dropped out. He said "I'm delighted to be involved again. I said some harsh things about Irish cricket two years ago, which I've come to regret deeply ... I feel I've got a good few years left in me, and reckon I can give a good deal of assistance to the talented youngsters in the set up".

Coaching career

On 12 January 2010, Bray announced his retirement from international cricket. He said "I'm not getting any younger, and it's hard to get up to the levels of fitness now required for international cricket ... "I have had some wonderful memories and will always be grateful to Ireland for giving me the opportunity". Post-career, Bray has been coaching including local A.C.T cricket Club Ginninderra, the ACT Comets and the Irish Women's cricket team. After two years at the helm, including helping gain qualification to the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 tournament, he announced that he would step down as coach of the Irish Women in December, 2013. Bray was appointed head coach of

in 2014. Having first led them in the 2014

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of t ...

Division 4 where they finished third, he then lead them to the 2015 ICC Europe Division One to try and qualify for the

2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier, for the 2016 World Twenty20, was held from 6 to 26 July 2015. The tournament was hosted by both Ireland and Scotland. 51 matches were played among 14 nations, down from 72 matches among 16 nations previous ...

. They finished in second to Jersey, narrowly missing qualification. In January 2021, Bray was appointed high performance manager at

Vanuatu Cricket Vanuatu Cricket, officially the Vanuatu Cricket Association, is the national Sport governing body, governing body of the sport of cricket in Vanuatu. Its current headquarters is in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Vanuatu Cricket Association is Vanuatu's rep ...

and head coach of the

Vanuatu national cricket team The Vanuatu national cricket team is the men's team that represents the Republic of Vanuatu in international cricket. The team is organised by the Vanuatu Cricket Association, which became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Co ...

. He resigned from the role in January 2022, returning to Ireland to coach at The Hills Cricket Club. He was appointed head coach of

Munster Reds Munster Reds is an Irish inter-provincial cricket team based in Cork, in the province of Munster. In April 2017, Cricket Ireland approved the participation of the team in the Interprovincial Twenty20 Cup, the highest level of T20 domestic cri ...

in January 2023.

References

External links

CricketEurope Stats Zone profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, Jeremy 1973 births Irish cricketers Ireland One Day International cricketers Ireland Twenty20 International cricketers Living people New South Wales cricketers Irish cricket coaches Wicket-keepers Australian expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Australian cricket coaches Coaches of the Vanuatu national cricket team Australian expatriates in Vanuatu