Career
Cottam played in only one first-class match - for New South Wales against the touring English cricket team - before making his Test debut in the Second Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Cottam made just four runs as Australia lost by 71 runs (scorecard). Cottam"s career in cricket would end shortly after his Test debut.
The former cricketer was lured to the goldfields at Coolgardie, Western Australia, near Kalgoorlie, where he died of typhoid fever, aged 29, in 1897.