1. Bransby Beauchamp Cooper was a member of the Australian cricket team that played the inaugural Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877.
16 Facts About Bransby Cooper
1. 2.
Bransby Cooper played first-class cricket as an amateur in England for Middlesex and Kent County Cricket Clubs before moving to Australia where he played for Victoria.
3.
Bransby Cooper was a right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper and the first Indian-born Test cricketer.
4.
Bransby Cooper has been described as "a public-school educated product of the English establishment".
5.
Bransby Cooper was born in Dacca in British India, the son of Bransby Henry Cooper and his wife Mary.
6.
Bransby Cooper's father was an officer in the East India Company and died in 1857, his mother returning to England to live at Hemel Hempstead.
7.
Bransby Cooper was educated at Rugby School where he played cricket in the school XI between 1860 and 1862, coached by Alfred Diver.
8.
Bransby Cooper played club cricket for Southgate Cricket Club and Free Foresters before going on to play first-class cricket for Middlesex and Kent.
9.
Bransby Cooper made his first-class debut in 1863 for a Middlesex side against Surrey before the county club was formally founded and played in the first match Middlesex played after their formation in 1864.
10.
Bransby Cooper played for MCC and the Gentlemen amateur side, often playing with WG Grace who made his Gentlemen debut in the same match as Cooper.
11.
Bransby Cooper played eight times for Middlesex sides between 1863 and 1867 before moving to Tunbridge Wells and playing nine times for Kent in 1868 and 1869.
12.
Bransby Cooper played for Victoria in 11 matches, including nine intercolonial matches against New South Wales.
13.
In what was to be his only Test match Bransby Cooper scored 15 and 3 runs and took 2 catches whilst becoming the first player to make their Test debut on their birthday.
14.
Bransby Cooper helped Charles Bannerman add 77 for the fourth wicket in the first innings, the highest partnership of the match.
15.
Bransby Cooper's only first-class century 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.
16.
Bransby Cooper was in business in both the United States and Australia, eventually becoming a senior official in the Customs Department at Queenscliff and Melbourne.