Rustom Sorabji Cooper, oldest first-class cricketer, passes away at 100

The oldest-ever first-class cricketer, Rustom Sorabji Cooper, popularly known as Rusi Cooper, passed away aged 100 on Monday at his residence in Kemp’s Corner, South Bombay. After celebrating his 100th birthday last year on December 14, Cooper became the longest-lived first-class cricketer in the world. Rusi peacefully passed away in his sleep.

Before he breathed his last, Cooper was the only living Indian cricketer to feature in the Pentangulars – the Pre-Independence league, which staged teams formed on the community lines, and the Ranji Trophy. Rusi plied his trade for the Parsees (1941-42 to 1944-45), Bombay (1943-44 to 1944-45) and Middlesex (1949-1951).

Cooper shined for Bombay (known as Mumbai today) during the 1944-45 Ranji Trophy final against Holkar, hitting a hundred in the second innings. He scored 52 and 104 in the match as Bombay clinched the title at the Brabourne Stadium by 374 runs. The right-handed batter had a stellar Ranji season (1944-45), scoring 551 runs at 91.82, with two hundreds and five fifties. That, however, was also his last Ranji season.

At 23, Cooper joined the London School of Economics. One year later (in 1947), while studying at LSE, Cooper played for Middlesex County alongside Dennis Compton, JJ Warr and Bill Edrich. 

Besides, Cooper was also an alumnus of Elphinston School and St. Xavier’s high school. After completing his course in the UK, Cooper returned to India in 1954. Though he didn’t play competitive cricket afterwards due to work commitments, the right-handed batter represented the Cricket Club of India in local tournaments and was a prolific run-scorer. 

Cooper was also a trustee of the Bombay Port for many years, and even till he was in his 90s, Cooper was a practising maritime lawyer.

“Rusi had a group of 12 yesteryears cricketers, and they used to meet regularly on Thursday afternoons at the Cricket Club of India. These meetings stopped after the passing away of TK Contractor. The others were Vijay Merchant, Anandji Dossa, Nari Contractor, Bapu Nadkarni, Farokkh Barucha, Rusi Modi, Madhav Apte, Aravind Apte, Vasant Raiji, and Madan Raiji.

“I remember that on a couple of occasions, Sachin Tendulkar, then a schoolboy, joined them for a dessert. I would be standing there hearing all the old cricket stories and history of the game from them,” Marcus Couto, a BCCI Umpire said, as quoted by The Times of India.