Born overseas they enriched Australia’s Test cricket

It is interesting to note that 25 Australian Test cricketers were born overseas. Four of them played for Australia in the January 2017 Sydney Test against Pakistan: batsman Usman Khawaja (born in Pakistan), spinner Stephen O’Keefe (Malaysia), opening batsman Matt Renshaw (England) and debutant all-rounder Hilton Cartwright (Zimbabwe).

Below is the list of male Australian Test cricketers who were born overseas.

ENGLAND (11): Charles Bannerman, John Hodges, Tom Kendall, William Midwinter, Percy McDonnell, William Cooper, Henry Musgrove, Hanson Sammy Carter, Tony Dell, Andrew Symonds and Matt Renshaw.

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.

PAKISTAN (1): Usman Khawaja.

PORTUGAL (1): Moises Henriques.

MALAYSIA (1): Stephen O’Keefe.

ZIMBABWE (1): Hilton Cartwright.

I request readers to add to my list in case I have missed out someone.

In the inaugural Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877 Australia fielded six players who were born overseas. They were the English-born quartet of Charles Bannerman, John Hodges, Tom Kendall and William Midwinter, along with Tom Horan (born in Ireland) and Bransby Cooper (born in India).

Charles Bannerman played the first ball in Test cricket on 15 March 1877, scored the first run and went on to record the first Test century. His domination in that innings (165 retired hurt out of Australia’s total of 245 at 67.35 percent) remains a Test record, even after 143 years.

Australia toured England for the first time in 1878. On that tour Bannerman recorded the only century by an Australian that summer, 133 at Leicester against Leicestershire. Bannerman later became an umpire. His younger brother, Alec, was born in Paddington, Sydney.

William Cooper was Paul Sheahan’s great grandfather. They provide the only instance of a great grandfather and a great grandson playing Test cricket.

Scotland-born Archie Jackson, a contemporary of Don Bradman, was an elegant batsman who 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 prolific run-getter as Bradman and as elegant as Vic Trumper.

Billy Midwinter later on played for England and Kepler Wessels for South Africa. After scoring 1761 runs for Australia at an average of 42.95 in 24 Tests from 1982-83 to 1985-86 with four hundreds (highest score 179), Wessels played 16 Tests for his country of birth making 1027 runs at 38.03 in 16 Tests from 1991-92 to 1994 hitting two centuries (highest score 118). A left-hand bat, Wessels made 162 on debut for Australia against England in November 1982.

My best overseas-born Australian XI:

1.     Charles Bannerman (born in Kent, England)

2.     Kepler Wessels (Bloemfontein, South Africa)

3.     Archie Jackson (Rutherglen, Scotland)

4.     Usman Khawaja (Islamabad, Pakistan)

5.     Dave Whatmore (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

6.     Andrew Symonds (Birmingham, England)

7.     Brendon Julian (Hamilton, New Zealand)

8.     Hanson Sammy Carter (Yorkshire, England) [wicket-keeper]

9.     Billy Midwinter (Gloucestershire, England)

10.  Clarrie Grimmett (Dunedin, New Zealand)

11.  Tony Dell (Hampshire, England).

12th man: Stephen O’Keefe.

A formidable foreign-born Aussie team indeed.