Empire Cricket Booklet

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W. G. SCHULZE

South Africa. 95 In retrospect, the match obtained huge significance as the Boer team was the first (white) South African cricket team to play against a 'non-white' overseas team. 96 It was, of course, not the earliest example of non-racial cricket involving white South African cricketers. As far back as the 1880s, white and black cricket clubs in the Eastern Cape played each other. 97 Another significant observation is that there were four English- and nine Dutch-speaking cricketers among the Boer cricketers who travelled to Colombo. For most of the twentieth century, official South African provincial and national cricket teams and administrators were dominated by white English speakers. 98 Therewas a clear divide between the sports which white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans played and those played by white English-speaking South Africans. Despite fear of oversimplification, it can be stated that where rugby was very much the preferred sport of Afrikaners, the English dominated cricket. This dividing line is reflected in the small number of white Afrikaans-speaking cricketers who represented South Africa for the larger part of the twentieth century. The story of the Boers is proof, however, that white Afrikaners were prominent in cricket before the South African War. In a reference to cricket in the Transvaal during the early days, mention is made that 'Johannesburg's first cricket team, formed in the year that gold was found [1886] [was] captained by 0. J. J. van Wyk, and containing as many Dutch speaking men as English'. 99 In the prisoner of war and concentration camps of the South African War, the British sought to promote British sports, notably rugby and cricket, among the Boers, yet in the years immediately after the war, and for some time thereafter, Afrikaners shunned cricket. What were the reasons for this? One explanation is the imperial connotation of crick et. The decisive event, it is argued, was the formation, on the initiative of South Africa, of the Imperial Cricket Conference (ICq in London in 1909. Member ship of this body, which acted as Test cricket's regulatory institution, was perforce confined to imperial subjects. This had a stifling effect on the development

The Broader Significance In none of the materials consulted for this chapter, including private papers and diaries of Boer cricketers, was any trace found of Boers objecting to playing against the Colombo Colts, a team of colour. This is supported by Sri Lankan sources, which stated that '[t]here was no coercion on the part of the British to get the Boers to play; on the contrary, the Boers asked to meet the champion Ceylonese club - the Colts CC'. 92 The cricket scribe of the Ceylon Ind ep endent correctly predicted that the match would become a historical event. He cautioned that the game 'was a sporting event, a challenge made and accepted in a sporting spirit and arranged for and the preliminaries undertaken in the self-same spirit. No other significance need be attached to it. Any such attempt, maybe, would become offensive to one side as to the other.' 93 While it is true that the game was not intended to have special significance, in hindsight it gained huge symbolic significance. Cricket is regarded as the quintessential English game. In a bizarre way, it served as a common de-nominator and leveller between British captor and Boer captive. But it also served as common denominator between the oppressed Ceylonese and Boers. Reports suggest that the Ceylonese harboured pro-Boer sentiments, although not as openly as European nations did, because they were under British rule. The support that Boers enjoyed from locals and the cordial hospitality they enjoyed from the Colts far exceeded their expectations. During the nearly two years that they spent in Ceylon, contact was proscribed between them and indigenous Ceylonese. The cricket match provided a rare opportunity to interact socially. Cricket was probably seen by the British as a safe forum to allow such interaction. However, both the Ceylonese and Boers probably appreciated, even then, that prowess in English games would be symbolic in challenging British political superiority. 94 An ironic but important relevance of the match was that it was between the Colts, a team of colour, and the Boers, an all-white team. What happened as a matter of course in Colombo in 1901, a non-racial cricket match, would take many decades to be accepted in