Short history of foreign-born Australian Test cricketers
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By Kersi Meher-Homji, 22 Sep 2009 Kersi Meher-Homji is a Roar Expert
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Am I the only person writing on Test cricket these days? After seven One-Day Internationals in England, the ICC Champions Trophy starts the South Africa today, then the Airtel Champions Twenty20 in India starts on October 8, followed by more Fifty50 ODIs between Australia and India in India.
Test matches will recommence in November.
But to keep the fires of Test cricket burning, here is the third post on the series of overseas-born Test cricketers. This time the focus is on Australian Test players.
Six of Australia’s Test team which played against England in the inaugural Test in Melbourne in March 1877 were born overseas.
They were: Charles Bannerman, John Hodges, Tom Kendall and William Midwinter in England, Tom Horan in Ireland and Bransby Cooper in India.
Since then, fourteen more foreign-born cricketers have represented Australia in Test cricket.
Below are listed twenty Australian Test cricketers who were born overseas.
ENGLAND (10): Charles Bannerman, John Hodges, Tom Kendall, William Midwinter, Percy McDonnell, William Cooper, Henry Musgrove, Hanson Carter, Tony Dell and Andrew Symonds.
SCOTLAND (1): Archie Jackson.
IRELAND (2): Tom Horan, Tom Kelly.
SOUTH AFRICA (1): Kepler Wessels.
NEW ZEALAND (3): Tom Groube, Clarrie Grimmett and Brendon Julian.
INDIA (2): Bransby Cooper and Rex Sellers.
SRI LANKA (1): Dav Whatmore.
Have I missed anyone out? Over to you, Roarers!
Note:
Charles Bannerman played the first ball in Test cricket on 15 March 1877, scored the first run (off the second ball) and went on to record the first Test century.
His domination in that innings (165 out of Australia’s total of 245, which works out at 67.35 percent) remains a Test record, even after 133 years! Beware the Ides of March, the England team must have commented.
William Cooper was Paul Sheahan’s great grandfather. Sheahan, noted for his brilliant fielding, played 31 Tests for Australia. They provide the only instance of a great grandfather and a great grandson playing Test cricket.
Archie Jackson, a contemporary of Don Bradman, was an elegant batsman but died aged 23. While lying in hospital on what was to be his death-bed he got married.
Knowledgeable critics opined that Jackson was as talented as Bradman and as elegant as Vic Trumper. What a tragedy that he died so young!
Kepler Wessels later played for South Africa.
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vinay said | September 22nd 2009 @ 6:43am | Report comment
Kersi…It is refreshing you are writing about Test Cricket. Unfortunately, there is so much apathy in our world that people only miss something when they have lost it.
Twenty/20 is like formula milk, easy to make but harder to digest. It has its uses but is no substitute for fresh homemade soup.It takes longer but the taste remains long after you have eaten it. Who remembers the man of the Match in the Lords ODI?
Keep the flame burning,Kersi and Scarlett’s Ghost will look after you.
vinay verma said | September 22nd 2009 @ 7:23am | Report comment
Kersi..dont be deterred. The MCC is resurrecting the Championship of Test Cricket. Martin Crowe has come up with something more edifying than his stillborn Cricket max. We also have emminent cricketers like Mark Taylor,Rahul Dravid and Sangakkara on the ICC Cricket committee. All men with a reverence for the traditions of cricket.
Twenty/20 is for those parents who are happy to feed their babies milk and food based on Laboratary formulae. The parents who have no time to take their kids to cricket because it takes too long. Presumably these same parents have time to watch reruns of Days of our Lives.
The only picnic some kids will see is the MacDonalds drivethrough.The XBox is their backyard cricket and their Hero is David Warner.
Give me Benaud,Davidson,Chapelli,Dougy,Dravid and Warney any day. Those that know not what has gone before know not cricket.
Dave said | September 22nd 2009 @ 7:01pm | Report comment
you must have hated it twenty years ago when all the kids were wearing all baseball hats and everybody was saying Basketball was going to take over
spiro said | September 22nd 2009 @ 8:33am | Report comment
It’s inevitable that the players not born in Australia should feature in the early teams. I think it was towards the end of the 19th century that there were more Australians born in Australian than out of it.
The intriquing aspect of the Australian Test side over the decades is the extremely low number of Test caps that have been awarded, some 400 or so, I believe.
Kersi will know this. But how does this compare with England and, say, South Africa, in the caps-Tests equation?
Brett McKay said | September 22nd 2009 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Great stuff Kersi – I didn’t know Brendan Julian was born in New Zealand. Perhaps that explains his mediocre medium pace!! (I kid..)
And yes, you might be the only Roarer on cricket currently, but I think it’s got more to do with everyone being a little cricketed out, rather than declining interst. In my case, after proof-reading 8 or 10 straight cricket articles and columns, it was my wife that suggested/requested a change of topic!!
Brett McKay said | September 22nd 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Spiro, I can answer it to a degree – Phillip Hughes has Baggy Green no.408, Marcus North 409, and Ben Hilfenhaus 410 whereas England’s numbers are now well into the 600s. For some reason, 644 rings a bell for Johnathan Trott.
South Africa’s number I’d imagine would be lower, given the 30-odd year banishment from Test Cricket. Also, I believe they’ve restarted their numbering since reinception, although that could also just be for ODIs..
Chop said | September 22nd 2009 @ 10:09am | Report comment
Kersi,
Someone has to keep the test cricket fires burning. Good stuff
Brett,
Give Brendan some credit, it was mediocre fast-medium….
Kersi Meher-Homji said | September 22nd 2009 @ 10:31am | Report comment
Welcome back, Vinay, thanks for your reassuring comments on Test survival. Someone has to produce a cricket chronicle exclusively for Test cricket.
Spiro and Brett,
Going by Wisden 2009, Test caps for each country are listed below (as at 7 January, 2009):
England 641 players, Australia 406, South Africa 302, West Indies 272, New Zealand 242, India 260, Pakistan 190, Sri Lanka 110, Zimbabwe 74 and Bangladesh 54. I’ll update the list as at October 2009 and report on it later on. Brett, the numbers you have given for Australia and England appear spot on. Fourteen cricketers have appeared for two countries.
Fewer Australians have played Test matches than for England is because Australia has played 705 Tests as against 879 played by England (both as at 7/1/09). Also in general, Australian selectors do not chop and change as much as their English counterparts do.
And don’t run down Brendon Julian, Brett. Many women watch cricket on TV just to see Brendon’s smiling face — going ooh and aah!!
Freud of Football said | September 22nd 2009 @ 6:54pm | Report comment
Going by Wiki England made Jonathon Trott (the South African) their 645th capped test cricketer, South Africa has had 304 capped players and the Windies 280, not saying that is more reliable but I can’t be bothered seeing where the discrepancy lies, further I should probably do some work today! If you have time Kersi, let us know, could be interesting.
Brett McKay said | September 22nd 2009 @ 10:55am | Report comment
Quite true Kersi, and England also have a lot more one-Test players than does Australia. When I selected my Ashes one-Test wonders back before the Ashes series, the pool of players was something like 50 for Asutralia, and more than 80 for England, and these are guys who played one Ashes Test only.
And I do kid about Brendan Julian, on his day he was a very handy cricketer, it’s just internationally at least, that “day” was a Thursday. And during his short stint on Getaway, just as many women tuned in for him as did blokes for Catriona Rowntree
vinay verma said | September 22nd 2009 @ 10:57am | Report comment
Kersi…for your info visit http//:www.seriouslycricketchronicles.com…subscription based Chronicles from writers that know their tradition and are concious of the bigger picture. You will be pleasantly surprised. First edition is early next month.
Greg Russell said | September 22nd 2009 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
“Have I missed anyone out?”
Kersi, you missed out Damien Martyn, who was born in the Northern Territory (Darwin). Just joking.
As of 2007, Marto and NZ’s Mathew Sinclair (Katherine) were the only two test cricketers born in the NT (see http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/287834.html).
I have something nagging in the back of my mind that I recently noticed a new international cricketer born there, but I can’t confirm this.