Empire Cricket Booklet

• em.p1re

THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE 1884-1914

Edited by Bruce Murray & Goolam Vahed

With a Foreword by Andre Odendaal

empire & cricket

empire & cricket THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE 1884-1914

Edited by Bruce Murray & Goolam Vahed

With a Foreword by Andre Odendaal

©2009 University of South Africa First edition, first impression

ISBN 978-1-86888-540-4

Published by Unisa Press University of South Africa PO Box 392, 0003 UNISA

Book Designer: Copy editor: Typesetting: Printer:

Thea Bester-Swanepoel Nicholas Southey Thea Bester-Swanepoel / Doris Hyman Harry's Printers, Pretoria

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means -mechanical or electronic, including recordings or tape recording and photocopying - without the prior permission of the publisher, excluding fair quotations for purposes of research or review.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders or use works in the public domain. We apologise for any inadvertent omissions, and will correct such errors if pointed out.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

vii

Abbreviations

ix

List of illustrations

xi

Foreword Andre Odendaal

xv

More than a Game Bernard Hall, Richard Parry and JontyWinch

ONE

3

Black Cricketers, White Politicians and the Origins of Segregation at the Cape to 1894 Richard Parry Guardians of the Game: The Role of the Press in Popularising the 1888/89 Tour and Establishing the South African Cricket Association JontyWinch

TWO

19

THREE

43

'I Could a Tale Unfold': The Tragic Story of 'Old Caddy' and 'Krom' Hendricks JontyWinch Empire, Race and Indian Cricket in Natal, 1880-1914 Goolam Vahed and Vishnu Padayachee

FOUR

61

FIVE

81

A B. Tancred and his Brothers Bernard Tancred Hall

SIX

101

George Lohmann Keith Booth

SEVEN

123

Cricket's 'Laird': James Logan Dean Allen

EIGHT

139

NINE

R. M. Poore: Sporting Prowess and Imperial Controversy Jeremy Lonsdale The Boer Prisoners of War in Ceylon and the 'Great and Grand Old Manly Game of Cricket' Heinrich Schulze Two Cricketers and a Writer: The Strange Case of 'Buck' Llewell yn , Jimmy Sinclair and Major Bowen Jonty Winch and Richard Parry The Googly, Gold and the Empire: The Role of South African Cricket in the Imperial Project, 1904-1912 Richard Parry and Dale Slater

159

TEN

177

ELEVEN

197

TWELVE

219

THIRTEEN Constructing Imperial Identity: The 1907 South African Cricket Tour of England Geoffrey Levett

241

FOURTEEN Abe Bailey and the Foundation of the Imperial Cricket Conference Bruce Murray

259

Contributors

279

Notes

281

Index

315

Preface and Ackno-wledgements

The role of sport generally, and cricket particularly, in the British imperial project has given rise to a fascinating literature, with the volumes edited by J. A. Mangan, The Cultural Bond: Sport, Empire, Society (London: Frank Cass, 1992) and Brian Stoddart and Keith A. P. Sandiford, The Imperial Game: Cricket, Cul ture and Society (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998) providing excellent introductions. This volume makes an important contribution to that literature from the standpoint of South African cricket. It takes forward the new history of South African cricket, intent both on recapturing the history of black cricket and placing the development of the game in its political context. Andre Odendaal's pioneering The Story of an African Game: Black Cricketers and the Unmasking of One of Cricket's Greatest Myths, South Africa, 1850-2003 (Cape Town: David Philip, 2003), the volume co-authored by Ashwin Desai, Vishnu Padayachee, Krish Reddy and Goolam Vahed, Blacks in Whites: A Century of Cricket Struggles in KwaZulu Natal (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2002), and the books by Jon Gemmell, The Politics of South African Cricket (London: Routledge, 2004) and Bruce Murray and Christopher Merrett, Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket Oohannesburg: Wits University Press, 2004) have led the way in this enterprise. Finally, by focusing on cricket and empire, this volume generates a number of critical insights into the socio-economic and political development of the region during its most critical formative period, underlining the extraordinary direct involvement in both cricket and

politics by the same tiny group of imperialists, white colonists, Africans, coloureds and Indians who, in shaping the cricketing domain, also fashioned the political relations of the subcontinent. The period covered in this volume - in imperial terms the late Victorian and Edwardian eras - was a truly formative one for South Africa as well as South African cricket. In cricketing terms it witnessed the foundation of the white South African Cricket Association (1890) and the non-racial South African Coloured Cricket Board (SACCB) (1902), the beginnings of first-class cricket and the inauguration of the inter-provincial Currie Cup competition, the staging of regular inter-provincial tournaments by the SACCB for the Barnato Memorial Trophy, the rapid progress of South Africa to Test match status along with England and Australia, and the key role of South Africa as a founder member of the Imperial Cricket Conference (1909) to regulate Test match cricket. Yet, apart from M. W. Luckin's The History of South African Cricket, published in 1915, and Andre Odendaal's work on 'South Africa's Black Victorians', few specialised studies have been made of the period's cricket and its players, a neglect that is well overdue for rectification. It is not only the highly significant political aspects of cricket's history that have been neglected, but the events and personalities of early South African cricket itself. In Brian Crowley's Cricket Exiles: The Saga of South African Cricket (Cape Town: Don Nelson, 1983), for example, he notes the shock of Tom Reddick, (the

viii

former Middlesex and Nottinghamshire all-rounder who represented Western Province), on discovering that South Africans were largely ignorant of the achievements of Aubrey Faulkner, perhaps the greatest all-rounder of his time, and the place he occupied in the country's cricket. This volume hopes to stimulate a new interest in the formative years of South African cricket, and to help shape the agenda for further research. A steering group in London, comprising Bernard Hall, Richard Parry, Jonty Winch and Keith Booth, together with Heinrich Schulze in Pretoria, were responsible for the genesis and planning of this volume, and it was at their request that we were brought in to contribute essays and to edit the final product. Many people have assisted along the way, and we would like to thank all of them for their help. Particular thanks are due to Robin Isherwood, who read all the chapters with his unrivalled thoroughness and attention to detail, and corrected statistical and grammatical errors as well as much else besides, and to Sharon Boshoff of Unisa Press, who has been exceptionally helpful in liaising with Unisa Press. Noel Garson and Graham Neame offered useful comments on several of the chapters, Carola Gruen and Krish Govender gave valuable assistance with the computer, and Hugh Lewin general advice. Cerillion Technologies Limited, London, kindly provided the steering group with a meeting room and hospitality on good many an occasion. Tony McCarron in Canberra, Australia, provided some important details on 'Krom' Hendricks, and David Rawdon, the new 'Laird of Matjiesfontein', was of great assistance onJ. D. Logan. For access to material, we are grateful to the late Major John Buist and his family who made available their private family collection on J. D. Logan; to Barbara Bailey for papers relating to Sir Abe Bailey; to Jeremy Haskins of Pretoria (the grandson of George Sennett), S. Terblanche of Hankey and Heloise le Roux of Pretoria (the granddaughter and great granddaughter, respectively, of Pieter de Villiers), Girly Elliott of Pretoria and Margaret Bell of

Kestell (both distant relatives of Thomas Hilder) for material on the Boer cricketers; to Adam Chadwick and the staff of the MCC Library at Lord's; to the trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives for access to the papers of R. M. Poore; to Dr T. Rogers of the Marlborough College archives; and to Michelle Pickover and the staff of the Historical Papers division of the Library of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the minutes of the South African Cricket Association and other material. The staffs of the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale, London, the National Library of South Africa, Cape Town and Pretoria, the Johannesburg Public Library, the Surrey County Cricket Club Library and the Surrey History Centre were all enormously helpful. For his journey to Sri Lanka to retrace the steps of the Boer prisoners of war, Professor Heinrich Schulze was helped by a number of Sri Lankans and showered with much hospitality. Professor Michael Roberts supplied him with the contact details of various persons in Sri Lanka who, in turn, greatly assisted him while there; Chandra Shaffter provided important information on the match between the Boers and the Colombo Colts; Major Dun Serasinghe, second-in-command of the Military Academy at Diyatalawa, provided a military escort and access to a highly restricted military area in order to visit and take photographs of the Boer memorial in the prisoner-of-war cemetery; and Major Asela Hettiarachchi provided access to the military camp and barracks where the Boers stayed over a 100 years ago - access which otherwise would have been impossible to obtain. Financial aid for his research was given by the University of South Africa. The South African Historical Journal kindly granted permission to republish 'Abe Bailey and the Foundation of the Imperial Cricket Conference', as did Andre Odendaal to republish several photographs from The Story ofan African Game.

Bruce Murray and Goolam Vahed

Abbreviations

Marylebone Cricket Club

Advisory County Cricket Committee

MCC

ACCC

African Political Organisation

Maritzburg Indian Cricket Club

APO

MICC

British South Africa Company

BSAC

Member of the Legislative Assembly

MLA

Cape Mounted Rifles

CMR

Member of Parliament

MP

Colonial Indian News

C/N

Natal Cricket Union

NCU

Durban District Indian Cricket Union

DD/CU

Natal Indian Congress

NIC

Durban Indian Cricket Union

DICU

Natal Indian Cricket Union

NICU

Durban Town Council

DTC

Orange Free State

OFS

Imperial Cricket Conference

ICC

South African Cricket Association

SACA

illicit diamond buying

IDB

South African Coloured Cricket Board

SACCB

Justice of the Peace

JP

South African Native National Congress

SANNC

King William's Town

KWT

Transvaal Cricket Union

TCU

London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Company

Lon rho

Western Province Cricket Union

WPCU

List of illustrations

The grave of Reggie Schwarz at Etaples (Bern

The first known written reference to a cricket match played in South Africa (The National

ard Hall collection)

17

4

Library, Pretoria)

Lovedale College Cricket Team, late nine teenth century (Odendaal, Story ofan African

The Wanderers Pavilion in the mid 1890s

22

Game, 37)

6

(Wanderers Club)

Nathaniel Cyril Umhalla, a leading figure in cricket over four decades (Odendaal, Story of

Lord Hawke's 1898/99 English side in action at Matjiesfontein 17 March 1899 (Dean Allen

an African Game, 28)

25

and Logan family)

7

Cricket played by black children near Aliwal North at the turn of the century (Odendaal,

A tea interval under the pines at Newlands in the 1890s (Western Province Cricket Union) Along with the British government and public, the satirical weekly, Punch, under- estimated Boer resistance in the guerilla

8

27

Story ofan African Game, 60)

Isaiah Bud-Mbelle (Odendaal, Story ofan

African Game, 324)

30

Western Province XVIII versus W.W. Read's English team, 1891(M. W. Luckin (ed.), The History ofSouth African Cricket, Johannes

phase of the South African war.

11

Colonel Robert Baden-Powell referred to beleaguered Mafeking in cricket terms

burg, Hortor, 1915, 504)

39

12

(unknown)

Walter Rubasana, the first president of the Border Native Cricket Union (Odendaal, Story ofan African Game, 54) Charles Finlason, South African cricketer and controversial journalist CTonty Winch

An African observer looks on between opposing captains, Percy Sherwell and Plum Warner (Wanderers Club) The deputation which protested before the British Parliament in 1909 against the new South African colour bar constitution (Andre Odendaal, The Story ofAn African Game, Cape

41

14

collection)

46

47

The 1888/89 English team (Wanderers Club)

The first South African team at Port Elizabeth

in 1888/89 (Gauteng Cricket Board)

16

Town: David Philip, 2003, 83)

53

xii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Monty Bowden, JohnShuter and W. G. Grace

trophy at Kimberley in 1913 (Krish Reddy

Oonty Winch collection)

and S. S. Singh)

96

54

John Tengo Jabavu, founder-editor of Imvo Zabantsundu (Documentation Centre For African Studies, University of South Africa)

Mr Judge's XI that played a 'veterans' match in 1885 (Luck.in, History of South African

55

Cricket, 1915, 36)

105

Cecil John Rhodes c1894 (De Beers Archives)

66

A. B. Tancred (Luck.in, History ofSouth African Cricket, 484, and South Africa's Who's Who, 1910) Captain A. B. Tancred in charge of a Maxim gun emplacement during the Jameson Raid (The Star, Johannesburg, reproduced in The Barnett Collection: A Pictorial History ofEarly

The 1894South African team - the first to tour

107

England Oonty Winch collection)

68

An artist's anticipation of the arrival of the South African cricketers in England in

1894 (Cricket Field, 26 May 1894)

71

Johannesburg, vol. 1)

112

A Cricket Field impression of the 1894 tour

(26 May 1894)

72

A. B. Tancred among a group of advocates and attorneys who conducted the defence of

The Home-born versus Colonial-born teams in 1902 (John Luker/Stewart West, Century at Newlands 1864-1964, Cape Town: Western

members of the Reform Committee

('Reformers on Trial', The Star, Johannesburg, reproduced in The Barnett Collection: A Pictorial History ofEarly Johannesburg, vol. 1) Louis Tancred demonstrates his 'peculiar crouch' (Luckin, History of South African Cricket, 688)

Province Cricket Club, 2003, 17)

73

113

Ernest 'Barberton' Halliwell (Gauteng Cricket Board) Western Province cricket officials who were prominent in preventing the selection of 'Krom' Hendricks for representative teams (Western Province Cricket Union and

75

116

George Lohmann ( Surrey County Cricket

Club and Wanderers Club)

126

Zimbabwean Archives, Harare)

76

A Boer commando riding through the streets

of Johannesburg (unknown)

132

Sport in the early 1900s - 'race' did not always matter (Krish Reddy and S. S. Singh)

87

Lord Hawke led English teams to South Africa in 1895/96 and 1898/99 (Gauteng Cricket Board and Cricket South Africa) George Lohmann's grave at the Peter Meintjies cemetery near Matjiesfontein (Keith Booth - private collection)

Durban Cricket Club c1903 (Krish Reddy and

135

S.S.Singh)

89

The Pirates Cricket Club in 1914/15 (Krish

90

Reddy and S. S. Singh)

137

Royals Cricket Club 1911/12 (Pietermaritz burg) (Krish Reddy and S. S. Singh) M. K. Gandhi is pictured with players and officials of the Greyville Cricket Club in 1913

James Logan (Dean Allen and Logan family)

142

93

Matjiesfontein, Cape Colony c1890 (Dean

144

Allen and Logan family)

94

(Krish Reddy and S. S. Singh)

The Logan versus Read and Ash court case. (Unknown newspaper source: Dean Allen

Officials of theSouth African Coloured Cricket Board pose with the Barnato Memorial

147

and Logan family)

xiii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

James Logan and fellow industrialists photographed on board RMS Norman prior to Mark Twain's departure in July 1896 (South African National Library, Cape Town, Photo collection, PHC 20953) The Matjiesfontein Mounted Rifles in front of the new Hotel Milner c1900 (Dean Allen and Logan family) R. M. Poore - cricketer and army officer (C.B. Fry (ed.), The Book ofCricket: A Gallery of Famous Players, London: George Newnes, 1899, and Jeremy Lonsdale collection) South African team which played against England in the First Test at Port Elizabeth in 1895/96 (Jonty Winch collection) James Logan and family c1899 (Dean Allen and Logan family)

C. B. 'Buck' Llewellyn (Cricket: A Weekly

Record ofthe Game, 30 July 1908)

200

Major Rowland Bowen, the controversial founder and editor of Cricket Quarterly (David Frith collection) Jimmy Sinclair, 'one of the first men who made South African cricket famous' (Cricket: A Weekly Record ofthe Game, 15 March 1913, 85) The South African team for the First Test against Lord Hawke's touring side in 1898/99 boume Cricket Ground during the Fourth Test in February 1911 (Gauteng Cricket Board) 212 Graffiti on the wall at Accrington Cricket Club (Photograph, C. Haworth, Accrington Observer and Times, 16 July 1912, provided by Nigel Stockley) 215 201 202 (Brian Bassano collection) 205 Dave Nourse pictured batting at the Mel-

150

153

156

163

166

Diyatalawa camp (Jeremy Haskins collection) 182

The Colts from Colombo and the Boer prisoners of war who played a two-day match in July 1901 (Luckin, History ofSouth

Lord Harris's Consolidated Goldfields and Aubrey Faulkner's Corner House cricket teams in 1904 (Gauteng Cricket Board)

226

African Cricket, 804)

183

Reggie Schwarz (David Frith collection)

228

Pieter H. de Villiers (Western Province Cricket Union) Tommy Hilder with his brother on commando (Girly Elliott collection)

Aubrey Faulkner (Denzil Batchelor, The Book of Cricket, London: Collins, 1952, 186)

184

229

Gordon White (Brian Bassano collection)

230

185

A. E. Vogler (Brian Bassano collection)

231

George Sennett who kept wicket for the

Orange Free State (Jeremy Haskins collection) 186

A South African player demonstrates the

googly (Cricket South Africa)

235

The match programme and menu (Jeremy

Haskins collection)

189

Shopkeepers endeavour to keep the public updated with scores in the Tests of 1909/10

A cricket match in progress at Diyatalawa

(Cricket South Africa)

236

camp (Jeremy Haskins collection)

191

C. B. Fry faces J. J. Kotze at Lord's (Brian

A recent photograph of the Nondescripts field

Bassano collection)

(W. G. Schulze collection)

246

192

The Australian batsman, J. R. M. 'Sunny Jim'

Boer cricket teams at Diyatalawa (Jeremy

Mackay (David Frith collection)

Haskins collection)

249

195

An unidentified Boer cricket team in Ceylon

Jimmy Sinclair and Aubrey Faulkner walk

(Jeremy Haskins collection)

out to bat (David Frith collection)

196

253

xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The 1907 touring team Gonty Winch

Punch's impression of Abe Bailey's 'triangular'

255

collection)

tournament (28 July 1909)

273

Abe Bailey (Cricket: A Weekly Record of

S. F. Barnes claims Louis Stricker's wicket at the Oval in 1912 (Gauteng Cricket Board) The captains in the 'triangular' Tests: Frank Mitchell (South Africa), C. B. Fry (England) and Syd Gregory (Australia) (Gauteng Cricket Board)

the Game, 26 March 1908)

262

276

The Wanderers cricket team 1897/98

264

(Wanderers Club)

Abe Bailey's 1904 South African cricket tourists hosted in London by members of British rugby teams (Wanderers

277

Punch's verdict on the triangular tournament

Club)

(21 August 1912)

270

278

Forew-ord

ANDRE ODENDAAL

Empire and Cricket is a well-researched book that will fundamentally change the way we view the beginnings of organised cricket in South Africa. The game has one of the largest literatures of any sport, and histories of cricket have tended to reflect in complacent and nostalgic ways the Victorian, colonial and patriarchal values in which it was drenched until recently. The notion of cricket as a 'British' and 'gentleman's' game that has somehow been neutral, 'above politics' and marked by 'fair play' is still widely held, without much critical reflection, in cricket circles. Yet, the game was integrally linked to the spread of British colonialism and social Darwinism at the height of imperial expansion in the mid to late nineteenth century and - in the colonies in particular - it served as a potent symbol of exclusivity and discrimination, shaping patterns of development which continue to influence countries long since independent. Empire and Cricket emphatically demonstrates the above point in the case of South Africa. It does so through the sheer weight of evidence, rather than blunt advocacy, which makes it all the more refreshing. By and large, the people who in this volume permanently take the gloss off the old romantic school's view of history are not so much combative activists but dedicated cricket lovers and researchers, who have for years been trawling through musty newspapers and scorecards from the 1800s. In the process, they contribute significantly to new understandings of the early history of cricket

in South Africa, as well as cricket in the 'Mother Country' and other parts of the globe which were previously painted red. The authors explain at the outset that 'cricketing characters and events had a significant impact on political, social and ideological developments' in South Africa and, indeed, that cricket played a 'central role' in the unfolding historical process in the subcontinent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is a big claim to make for the role of sport. But, as the contributors proceed to analyse 'the complex relationship between cricket and society' at the time, the reader is forced to concede grudgingly that the proposition is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Cricket and cricketers consistently thread through the narratives of the epoch-shaping political and economic developments that changed the face of South Africa after the discovery of diamonds and gold. The authors demonstrate convincingly: • how the first English tour to South Africa in 1888/89 symbolically promoted the idea of the 'civilising' mission of colonialism; • how cricket and clubs in early Kimberley were central to the social life of the new class of mining capitalists and imperialists, who quickly blocked out possible local competitors; • how cricket mirrored the shift in economic power to Johannesburg after the discovery of gold, and

xvi

ANDRE ODENDAAL

how cricketers participated in the subsequent rise of the Johannesburg stock exchange; • how the first Currie Cup tournament in 1890 was in part a launching pad for the Pioneer Column, whose task was to open up 'Rhodesia', with the youngest English cricket captain as a celebrity participant; • how cricketers were active in the subsequent colonisation of Zimbabwe, which was designed to unlock further gold (and a path to Cairo), to the extent that a long-serving administrator of Rhodesia was one of the early South African cricket captains; • how, further south, cricket was a metaphor for the change in emphasis in 'native policy' from the early Cape liberalism, which emphasised individual advancement and opportunity regardless of colour in a free market, to a situation where 'labour now lay at the heart of policy' and racial segregation was promoted in order to ensure cheap, forced supplies of it; • how cricketers were active in plotting the Jameson Raid and participating in the South African or Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) as part of the imperial design to reshape South Africa politically so that Britain could secure control of the mineral wealth of the country; • how cricket was part of the political efforts to reconcile the two 'races' - Afrikaner and English - at the expense of Africans after the war, which led to the new Union of South Africa with its 'colour bar' in 1910, the subsequent deep institutionalisation of segregation and racism and, eventually, formalised apartheid; • and, finally, how South African gold propelled South Africa from the margins to the mainstream of British foreign policy, to the extent that mine magnate Abe Bailey was able to initiate the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 to regulate international cricket, making South Africa part of a select club together with England and Australia. (The revered Lord Harris of cricket lore was at the time also 'simultaneously both treasurer

of the MCC and Chairman of Consolidated Goldfields'.) These deep insights fundamentally enhance, if not substantially reshape, our understanding of the foundation narratives of South African cricket. The first four chapters provide the solid foundations on which Empire and Cricket rests. The sports historian, Jonty Winch, whose research and output in recent years deserves more recognition, and the university scholars Richard Parry, Goolam Vahed and Vishnu Padayachee not only provide a solid framework within which we can understand the beginnings of international tours and organised cricket under the whites-only South African Cricket Association, but also offer a useful overview of how black cricketers fitted into the picture. These traditionally 'own affairs' stories here become part of an integrated narrative of the game in this country. Vahed and Padayachee, co-authors of the seminal Blacks in Whites (2002) together with Ashwin Desai and Krish Reddy, bring their sophisticated insights of early Indian cricketers in Natal into the realm of general cricket history, while Parry adds to our knowledge of early African and so-called 'Malay' cricketers (a term used loosely then to describe 'coloured' Muslim and Christian players, often to their displeasure). For this author of The Story of an African Game (2003), Parry's contribution is like a fresh breeze, marking the arrival, after a long wait, of a kindred spirit who adds substantially to our knowledge of the remarkable black pioneers of cricket in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Kimberley. It is a great pleasure to read something newly researched in an area which for a while now has been more or less a one-person domain. After Parry's elegant sketching of the context, Winch, refining his earlier work in England's Youngest Captain (2002), provides what is perhaps the core part of this book. He details in clear terms how the British colonial political and sporting elite in Cape Town, centred around the arch-imperialist and then prime minister, Cecil John Rhodes, systematically hounded and excluded the talented black cricketer, 'Krom' Hendricks, from provincial and international cricket, and ultimately league cricket, over a period

xvii

FOREWORD

of several years in the 1890s. This act of exclusion was decisive in shaping the subsequent direction of South African cricket. Hendricks was good enough to play at the highest level at a time when inter-racial matches were not uncommon and when influential establishment figures and journalists (such as Ernest 'Barberton' Halliwell, Abe Bailey and Harry Cadwallader) supported the goals of black cricketers seeking merit selection, but the action against him fatally fixed the colour bar. And this, in turn, led South African domestic and international cricket into a long cul de sac. Richard Parry writes thatcricket'was a key element of the cultural expression of the colonial establishment' and here, step by step, we see how Rhodes's acolytes in the Western Province Cricket Club and Western Province Cricket Union - William Milton, W. V. Simkins, Louis Smuts, Edward Steytler, Murray Bisset, John Reid, Maynard Nash, C. Neumann Thomas, Herbert H. Castens, 'Vollie' van der Bijl et al - systematically plotted against Hendricks, despite those arguing in favour of a merit-based system. First, the exclusionists insisted he be left out of the South African team for the first tour overseas in 1894, when he was already part of the squad. In 1895/96, they again held firm when Lord Hawke's team made a return visit. Then they barred him from the top local match between Home and Colonial Born in 1894, the Western Province team to play in the Currie Cup in 1895 and, eventually, from local league matches in 1897, although he had participated and performed outstandingly at this level before. The ugliness of the Hendricks case lies in the systematic insistence of the establishment over a long time that he be exduded; it was not a once-off headline story. In 1904, he was still trying unsuccessfully to get permission to play. Empire and Cricket shows clearly that these moves to impose segregation in sport were part of the broader political project led by Rhodes and his cricketing private secretary (and drafter of legislation), Milton. They happened at the very time that Rhodes and his allies set out to replace old'Cape liberal' notions of individual advancement with a clear segregationist policy (via the Glen Grey Act and other measures) that sought to restrict rather than encourage an emergent black middle class, and

who saw them now as a threat to - rather than a precondition for - future progress. The story of Krom Hendricks has assumed romantic and mythical proportions over the past few decades, both for those trying to gloss over past inequalities -'things weren't always that bad in the past, there was this player, that match etc' - and those deeply angry about white domination and its impact. This comprehensive telling of the story for the first time is both compelling and overdue. It is a classic example of how individual talent and ambition can be thwarted in the most cruel way by a system and elites driven by notions of exceptionalism rather than universalism. Every professional cricketer in South Africa who doubts the need for transformation today should be obliged to read Winch's chapter which, to my mind, is one of the most significant pieces of historical research on sport in South Africa in the past decade. The colonial and cricket elites in the Cape in the 1890s, who exercised power with a polite arrogance against Hendricks, fully confident about their 'civilising mission' and responsibility for 'progress', are still celebrated as founding 'fathers' of South African cricket in standard histories. One such book is Luckin's, The History ofSouth African Cricket (1915), which, incidentally, refers to Hendricks as a 'Cape Coloured boy'. Indeed, as Winch points out, the same establishment that wrote this history literally excised from its 800 pages the name of the remarkable Harry Cadwallader, first secretary of the South African Cricket Association, who had opposed them and championed Hendricks at significant personal cost. Empire and Cricket thus underscores just how necessary it is to revisit, revise and re-contextualise old fixed cricket narratives from the vantage point of today, and how revitalising this project can be. Rigorously examining and critiquing the past is often still seen as being 'political' rather than 'just cricket', but this book, like a soothing psychologist, tells those of us who might still implicitly feel the need to deny and defend the past out of sentimental loyalty to the game and an inherited upbringing that we can now let go without losing face. Heavy old anchors, which weigh us down, can safely be released. And so we

xviii

ANDRE ODENDAAL

closely early South African cricket was interweaved with colonial and imperial politics. Empire and Cricket ends on a strong note, with a set of chapters promoting the thesis that South Africa gr ew in importance in the international relations of Empire going into the 1900s and that this was reflected in its parallel growth as a cricketing power. The concluding section neatly bookends the bio gr aphies and strong opening chapters discussed above. Heimich Schulze tells of the Boer prisoners of war who played cricket in the concentration camps in the then Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the early 1900s, adding gravy to the bones dished up before. Richard Parry and Dale Slater chronicle the remarkable story of the googly quartet which provided the platform for the rise of South Africa as a competitive international team in the 1900s, beating England for the first time in 1906 and Australia in 1911. Geoff Levett argues that the 1907 South African tour to England (the first under the designation cricket 'Springboks', following the path-breaking Springbok rugby tour the year before) was 'part of the pro gr amme to make South Africa "British"', and Wits Professor Emeritus, Bruce Murray, co-author of Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket (2004), concludes with a well timed chapter on the formation of the ICC (then called the Imperial Cricket Conference) which celebrates its centenary in 2009. The ICC had its genesis in a larger than-life story in which the cajoling, self-invented Randlord, Sir Abe Bailey, bank-rolled Transvaal and South African cricket, employed and domesticated star British cricketers, sponsored tours and, finally, gate-crashed the England/ Australia party to ensure a place for South Africa at cricket's high table. All this meant that by 1910, when the new Union of South Africa came into being and the country had become a key part of the global economy, South Africa was also well positioned to play a leading part in the expansion of international cricket in the twentieth century. All in all, Empire and Cricket is a work based on solid research by a dependable team of writers and university-trained scholars. The research in late nineteenth-century newspapers is particularly impressive and highlights the possibilities that still exist in these sources for those interested in other

assume new freedoms and orthodoxies, only to be challenged in turn down the line. The contributors to this study on South Africa are predominantly British, European and Australian based - besides Parry and Winch, they are Dean Allen, Keith Booth, Bernard Hall ( gr andson of A.B. Tancred, the first South African player to carry his bat in a Test innings), Geoffrey Levett, Jeremy Lonsdale and Dale Slater - and this mix is a reason for the originality and success of this book. After the impressive innings by the four top-order batsmen, a number of bio gr aphical chapters follow. They deal with the Tancred brothers, the gr eat George Lohmann, who lies buried at Matjiesfontein, Cricket's 'Laird' James Logan, who owned Matjiesfontein, the remarkable all-round soldier-sportsman Robert Montagu Poore, C. B. 'Buck' Llewellyn, Jimmy Sinclair, the famous South African googly quartet of Reggie Schwarz, Ernie Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White, and the colourful Sir Abe Bailey. These chapters are filled with fascinating detail, much of which will be new to South African readers. It is not possible here to give the same depth of analysis to them as the opening chapters discussed above, but each one brings to the fore valuable new knowledge and contributes to the overall solidity of Empire and Cricket. The depth of the research is emphasised by the fact that ten of the twelve contributors already have monographs or doctoral de gr ees to their names. Thus the chapters by Booth, Allen and Lonsdale, for example, are direct outflows from long periods of research and already completed books and dissertations. Key individuals who helped cast the foundations of South African and world cricket are brought to life in new ways at a time when only specialists will remember most of them. (And this is done without recourse to the ' gr eat men who made history' approach.) The biographical essays strive to locate the subjects' lives in a social context to fit in with the concerns of the editors, and are valuable contributions because of the original research underpinning them. The detailing of connections and social networks (for example, the fact that Abe Bailey later became linked by marriage to the Churchills) is a feature of the book and can leave no one in doubt about how

xix

FOREWORD

1860'. Consciously calculated to further 'the ongoing transformation of South African society' through a fuller understanding of history, and written in a manner that cricket fans and more serious readers alike can enjoy, Empire and Cricket is a worthy addition to the growing body of revisionist works on the game which have appeared in recent years.

aspects of South African sports history. The authors have made a major contribution to our understanding of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century South African cricket and society, and they have certainly backed up their contention that 'cricket provides a window on the way society coped with massive social, economic and political changes after

.

rAORE THAN A GAME

of its being given improved status in public schools and because of the perceived moral upliftment that the new games cult brought. Headmasters attached further value to the development by sympathising with the imperial idea in which games played an important role in the training of English gentlemen, administrators and soldiers. Sportsmen from public schools would take their games with them when assigned posts of responsibility in outposts of the empire. 'The translators and emasculators of Arnold,' wrote C. L. R. James,'were the van gu ard of a worldwide movement ... [and] an integral part of civilisation was on its way.' 3 The impact on South Africa was significant and as Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game commented on Transvaal's victory in the inau gu ral Currie Cup Challenge in 1889/90, 'Dulwich and Charterhouse may fairly be said to have won the first eleven-a-side match ever played by the state which has become so prominent ever since'. 4 But in the empire, sport generally began as part of the military adventure. In South Africa, the long series of colonial wars (and indeed the South African War itself) meant that it was a long time before cricket would rid itself of the military tinge, of defenders of the empire at play. According to Richard Holt, sport'helped both to relieve the tedium of a distant posting and to integrate new arrivals into the small world of colonial society'. In time, it'came to have a special meaning for the empire ... in the transmission of imperial and national ideas'. 5 The first touring cricketers from England were described by David Frith as being'ambassadors, showing the flag in the colonies, providing a fond link for the settlers from the Old Country and a sight of some curiosity for the native-born'. He continued: 'In turn, Australian and South African cricketers were expected to be rough hewn and they often were. They were additionally expected to lose, and often did. And sometimes they won, and it did nothing to weaken the bonds of the far-flung empire.' 6 It was success on the pitch rather than failure that cemented South Africa's imperial position by 1909. The various essays which follow explore cricket within political, social and economic contexts as a game that served a distinct role in early South African

history, not least because it was played by each of the major ethnic and racial groups. The following chapter describes the early popularity of cricket amongst African and coloured players at the Cape; a subsequent chapter considers the relationship between cricket, empire and the Indian people of Natal. Later chapters also cover cricket played by Afrikaans- and English-speaking whites and describe declining Afrikaner interest from strong beginnings. A Cape Times article on cricket in the Cape Town area in the early 1850s made no effort to differentiate between English and Dutch colonist contributions to the game, and recalled the prominent fi gu res of the period as the 'Van Renens, Cloetes, Hornes, De Smidts'.7 The Early English Tours In examining South African cricket from 1860 to 1915, W. H. Mars unsurprisingly concluded that'the turning point in its history in many ways' was the first English tour by Major Robert G. Warton's team in 1888/89. 8 It was South Africa's first international sporting encounter and did much to bring the various political elements together as a single entity in the public mind twenty years before political union. In cricketing terms, it marked the beginning of first-class cricket in the country. It gave A. B. Tancred - South Africa's'W. G. Grace' - a chance to display his talent and, remarkably, become the first player to bat through a Test innings. The tour also encouraged South Africans to explore further opportunities to play at an international level, whilst galvanising local enthusiasts into establishing cricket administrations. It also brought both cricket itself and the key personalities, whether players, administrators or even journalists into the public eye. Many of the names which cropped up during that tour reappear in the years that followed, frequently pursuing contrasting paths of opportunity within a complex society. What is particularly interesting is the significance and fluidity of the careers of the main individuals involved. William Milton, for example, was the 1888/89 tour organiser who became South Africa's cricket captain in its second Test match. He then served as Cecil John Rhodes's parliamentary private

BERNARD HALL, RICHARD PARRY AND JONTY WINCH

secretary, responsible for producing much of the legislation that the Rhodes government enacted, and ultimately became administrator of Rhodesia. His English counterpart as skipper in the Second Test, Montague Bowden, would subsequently shine for the Transvaal before serving Rhodes in the capacity of a 'celebrity' trooper in the march to open up the northern hinterland for the British South Africa Company. By contrast, John Tengo Jabavu, the African journalist, political agent, cricket enthusiast and supporter, and highly successful editor of the influential Imvo Zabantsundu who had endeavoured to arrange a black cricket tour to England, wrote critically of the 1888/89 venture. He would in time visit that country as a leading African political figure protesting against the increasing deterioration of

great rivalry between the centres, stemming to a large extent from the impact of the mineral discoveries, the boom-and-bust cycles of speculation and depression and notably the switch in focus from diamonds to gold. The 1888/89 tour illustrated the bitter competition between the territories, and the English captain, Aubrey Smith, claimed that wherever his side went, they were urged 'to thrash Kimberley'. 10 In turn, the Kimberley cricketer and journalist, Charles Finlason, in characteristic hyperbolic form, described Johannesburg as 'an abode of fleas, flies and favours' and poured scorn on their efforts to raise a cricket side.11 By the early 1890s, however, Johannesburg had eclipsed Kimberley, and the Transvaal began to demolish Kimberley's claims to

The Wanderers Pavilion in the mid 1890s - one of the best-known landmarks of a booming Johannesburg

African political rights. And the ubiquitous Pieter de Villiers, secretary to the Kimberley committee for the 1888/89 tour, became involved in cricket in the Transvaal and Western Province before opposing the British in the South African War and representing the Boer prisoners of war in the famous cricket match at Colombo. The Star stated 'we are all "Wanderers'" when refer ring to players of that time. 9 There was nevertheless

cricketing pre-eminence and to rival the Cape as the economic centre of South Africa. During the decade after 1889, some of England's most colourful cricketers played in South Africa. Some were contracted as professionals, others appeared with the military or in one of four English sides that toured during the period. There were, for example, the magnificent Surrey and English cricketer, George Lohmann, who had strong ties with

MORE THAN A GAME

the world's first race, and the more of the world they inhabited the better it would be for humanity; this absorption would also ensure the end of all wars'. 14 The period created a rich legacy of South African cricket achievements and stories. This is not surprising because the game was a social meeting point that attracted people from the outlying areas, who would relish the opportunity to meet friends, drink and gamble. The 1890/91 Currie Cup challenge between Kimberley and the Transvaal, for example, was played over a record seven days, long enough for a considerable amount of money to be won and lost. The diamond magnate, Barney Barnato - 'who had an idea that the [cricket] scoring was different to that in a billiards match but he didn't know how' - was nevertheless reported to have won £2 000. 15

South Africa, and the legendary Brigadier-General Poore who was invited to play for the English and South African teams during the 1895/96 tour. It was 'another imperial duty', said Derek Birley in a reference to Lord Hawke who led a team in 1895/96 that included ten amateur 'gentlemen' out of fourteen players and 'with just one exception, the "gentlemen" were all Oxford or Cambridge Blues'. 12 Iain Wilton in his biography of C. B. Fry does note that they were not a particularly popular team owing to their unsportsmanlike behaviour, lack of concern for locals, complaints about pitches, unpleasant sledging and the occasional clamouring for money.13 They did, nevertheless, add much to the cricket scene with a colourful splash of blazers, belts and hat ribbons, whilst locals were able to marvel at the

Lord Hawke's 1898/99 English side in action at Matjiesfontein, 17 March 1899

The English tours generated interest amongst the leaders of towns and territories who realised that 'British sports served overwhelmingly to express and enhance the solidarity of colonial society'. 16 Sport could be a means of forging a South African identity in a land that was otherwise sh arp ly divided. Milton loomed large over South African cricket and his career spans several chapters in this book, with his emerging influence being largely instrumental in the politicisation of sport at the Cape and ultimately

talents of personalities such as C. B. Fry, Lohmann, Tom Hayward, Timothy O'Brien and Sammy Woods. The splendour of Matjiesfontein made a wonderful setting for such a touring side, courtesy of its owner and cricket benefactor, James Logan. David Frith wrote of the 'seductive charm' of the late Victorian and Edwardian period, 'a time of complacency, security and opulent pride for Britain and her splendid Empire . . . many shared the conviction of Cecil Rhodes that the British were

BERNARD HALL, RICHARD PARRY AND JONTY WINCH

throughout the country. His tremendous enthusiasm for cricket and his hard work in building up the game were off-set by his use of sport as a means of dividing society along racial lines. Supported by Western Province cricket officials who readily agreed to link cricket to official racist ideologies and policies, a cricket policy was established in line with the segregationist strategy developed in the early 1890s by Cecil John Rhodes's Cape government. Sport and Segregation 'Class distinction held firm, in cricket as in real life,' wrote Frith, 'though it has long been a prime claim for English cricket that it has brought all breeds of men together in a pavilion. This it may have done,

tradition. There were numerous black clubs playing cricket in the latter part of the nineteenth century and their players were also prepared to travel great distances to fulfil league commitments and compete in tournaments. We have attempted to redress some of this balance by looking closely at what was loosely (if inaccurately) described as Malay cricket in Cape Town and Kimberley, which underwent its own 'Golden Age' in the 1890s, producing several players who might have been good enough for a representative South African side. Sadly they were never given the opportunity. Politics and economics have always been the key influence in the structure and development of South African cricket. The determination of the Cape

A tea interval under the pines at Newlands during a successful period for Western Province cricket in the 1890s

creating an additional mystique, but it could never bring about any real fusion of species.' 17 In South Africa, the game reflected and reinforced the political and economic as well as the obvious social cleavages and made these manifest in a very particular way. The lack of access of blacks - whether African, coloured or Indian - to the mainstream media and the general lukewarm interest of their involvement (with some particular exceptions in Kimberley) obscured the fact that black cricket has a long and rich cricketing

authorities to prevent a coloured cricketer, 'Krom' Hendricks, from gaining representative selection divided the country and is every bit as significant as the 'D'Oliveira Affair' of 1968 in South Africa's sporting history. The clique that ran Western Province sport in the 1890s and early 1900s is an important focal point of the infamous Hendricks affair. It was not a peculiarly South African case: segregation in the country's sport could be seen as 'a logical extension of the Victorian concept of order