Robert Maskew Cowper (5 October 1940 – 11 May 2025) was an Australian

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

who played

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

from 1964 to 1968, and

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

cricket for Victoria and

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

from 1960 to 1970. He scored the first Test cricket triple century in Australia.

Cricket career

Bob Cowper was the son of Dave Cowper, who captained the

Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...

in the 1930s. Bob's older brother

Dave Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

was also a cricketer. Bob was educated at

Scotch College, Melbourne Scotch College is a private, Presbyterian day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The college was established in 1851 as The Melbourne Academy in a house in Spri ...

, and began playing for Hawthorn-East Melbourne in 1958.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 125–26. Two years later, he was in the Victorian side. A tall, correct left-handed batsmen, Cowper scored heavily for Victoria in the 1962–63 and 1963–64 seasons and was selected to tour England in 1964. He was successful in the county matches but not in his first Test at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

. He took part in Australia's next tour, to the West Indies in 1964–65, when he "displayed courage, a cool temperament and fine technique in dealing with the hostile pace of

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

and

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Ridge, ...

". He was Australia's leading run-scorer in the Test series, with 417 runs at an average of 52.12, including centuries in the Second and Fourth Tests. Cowper was dropped in the

1965–66 Ashes series The 1965–66 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches, each of five days with six hours play and eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1965–66 and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name o ...

for slow scoring. When he was recalled for the Fifth Test at Melbourne he made the first Test triple century in Australia: 307 from 589 balls in 727 minutes. It was the only Test triple century that was scored in Australia in the 20th century.

Matthew Hayden Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer. His career spanned fifteen years. Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman who, along with opening partners Ju ...

's 380 against Zimbabwe in 2002–03 is now the highest Test innings in Australia, but Cowper's remains the longest. After his triple century, he was never omitted from the Test side until a hand injury forced him out of the Fifth Test in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

. In the last 13 matches of his Test career (the 1966–67, 1967–68, and 1968 series), he scored 931 runs at 38.79 and took 31 wickets at 25.22. In those 13 matches, no other Australian player exceeded 800 runs, and only

Graham McKenzie Graham Douglas McKenzie (born 24 June 1941) – commonly known as "Garth", after the comic strip hero – is an Australian cricketer who played for Western Australia (1960–74), Leicestershire (1969–75), Transvaal (1979–80) and Australi ...

, with 49, took more wickets. Cowper was only 27 when he played his last Test, at Headingley in 1968, almost exactly four years after his first, at Headingley in 1964. Cowper captained Victoria to victory in the

in 1969–70, then left cricket altogether to concentrate on his business career. Cowper averaged 75.78 in home Tests but only 33.33 overseas. The difference of 42.45 is a Test record.

Later career

At the early age of 27, and having qualified as an accountant while playing cricket, Cowper decided to focus on stockbroking and merchant banking, eventually becoming a multi-millionaire. With regards to his decision to retire as a cricketer at the early age of 27, Cowper said:

One morning reality really hit me. I worked out that, for playing cricket for Australia for nine months out of the previous 12, my gross income for the year was $3,000. It was time to go.

He also served as a cricket referee. In 1977, he joined the administrative board of

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...

. In the 1980s, he moved to

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. He was Australia’s representative to the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

from 1987 to 2001. Cowper was awarded life membership of Cricket Victoria in 2018. In the 2023 King's Birthday Honours, he was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

in recognition for his service to cricket. Cowper died in Melbourne on 11 May 2025 after a battle with an illness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowper, Bob 1940 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Australian sportsmen Australia Test cricketers Australian cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People educated at Scotch College, Melbourne People from Kew, Victoria Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Victoria cricketers Western Australia cricketers