News
11 October, 2026
Bruce Collins remembered for ‘remarkable’ sporting and professional achievements
Local cricketers paused for a minute’s silence before their game on Saturday in memory of Bruce Collins KC.
Local cricketers paused for a minute’s silence before their game on Saturday in memory of Bruce Collins KC.
Mr Collins – a distinguished Barrister and King’s Counsel –was widely respected in the NSW and Australian cricketing communities as both a player and administrator.
He passed away on September 27, aged 78.
Mr Collins was the inaugural chairman of the Bradman Trust and played an important role in raising the funds required to establish the Bradman Museum in Bowral.
He also served on the Boards of Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW during the early 2000s.
Mr Collins grew up in Taree and joined the Sydney University Cricket Club while studying Law on campus.
He scored almost 4500 runs and played 64 First Grade matches with ‘The Students’ before finishing his playing career with the renowned I Zingari club, scoring another 3000 runs.
He later served as SUCC’s president and delegate to the Sydney Cricket Association (SCA) and was chair of the SCA’s Committee of Management.
He was a Life Member of the SUCC, a Patron of the club's Foundation, a long-serving president and, in recent years, a co-Patron.
Cricket NSW issued a statement saying that Mr Collins would be remembered as an engaging speaker and devoted volunteer whose lifetime of service had enriched the game.
Players in the SCA competition also paused for a minute’s silence before their fixtures on October 3.
Fellow co-Patron of the SUCC, James Rodgers, remembered Mr Collins as an aggressive batsman whose game was filled with thumping boundaries.
He could change the course of a match in just a few overs.
Mr Rodgers said Mr Collins would also be remembered for his “legendary” sense of humour both on and off the field and for his talents as an “eloquent and persuasive public speaker”.
The SUCC club extended its sympathies to Mr Collins’ wife, Di, to his family “and to all those who were privileged to have played with him and to have been the recipients of his boundless generosity and graciousness”.
“He stood for, and lived by, the best qualities that our great game has to give,” Mr Rodgers said.
Away from the cricket field, Mr Collins was a highly distinguished Barrister and international arbitrator who was appointed a Queen’s Counsel (later King’s Counsel) in 1989.
He undertook numerous high-profile government and private sector appointments locally and globally.
Mr Collins commenced his legal career as an Associate to Sir Garfield Barwick, then Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, before being called to the New South Wales Bar in 1974.
He went on to spend 50 years at the Bar, taking silk in 1989.
In more recent years, Mr Collins practised as a full-time international arbitrator and was an inaugural member of Arbitration Chambers – established in 2012 and recognised as the pre-eminent chambers for international arbitrators.
He was the Australian member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration from 2012 to 2018 and travelled regularly from Sydney to Paris to attend Court sessions.
International Chambers said he did so with characteristic enthusiasm, “relishing both the intellectual rigour of the Court’s work and the opportunity to engage with colleagues from around the world”.
He was also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and served on numerous occasions as an arbitrator with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Mr Collins’ colleagues at Arbitration Chambers said that for all his remarkable professional and sporting achievements, Mr Collins was “first and foremost an extraordinary family man and friend”.
“Bruce will be remembered by all of us at Arbitration Chambers not simply for the distinction of his career, but for his warmth, generosity, intellectual curiosity and friendship,” it said in a statement following Mr Collins’ death.
“He lived an extraordinarily full life and will be very greatly missed”.
• A memorial service for the late Bruce Wilkie Collins(March 15, 1948 – September 27, 2026) will be held at St Jude’s Anglican Church in Bowral on Monday, October 12 commencing at 1pm. Family and friends are invited to celebrate his rich life at the service and to gather afterwards at the Bradman Oval Pavilion. Members of clubs are warmly invited to wear their club blazer or tie.
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