Empire Cricket Booklet

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RICHARD PARRY AND DALE SLATER

in by the mining industry and threw in their lot with the new South Africa. As a fellow outpost from the mother country, with the same potential for both strained and competitive relations with the metropolis, South African society might have been expected to have more sympathy for the Australian point of view than for the English one. But there were clear overriding factors: Abe Bailey and the Randlords absorbed the views of their metropolitan partners, who in turn accepted the reality of race in the South African context and its role in the reconstruction of the mining industry. Given the unflattering general opinions of Australia current both in the Transvaal and apparently in the corridors of the MCC, Bailey recognised their weakness and his own strength: money. The South Africans, backed by Bailey and the mining industry, could afford to be 'amateurs', indeed they had to be - they were not a drawcard and needed to pay their way. The Australians on the other hand consistently saw themselves as a nation of working men, the product of an ideology of individual achievement where inherited privilege had no place, a fact which gave the Ashes and all other sporting contests with the mother country such spice. The South African establishment saw the world quite differently, and were natural allies of the MCC and conservatism. There were a number of reasons for this. Australia's convict history, strong Irish representation, and length of settlement were critical, as was the fact that their gold deposits had not proved to be a sufficient basis for the large-scale attraction of British capital like that of the Witwatersrand. In the end Abe Bailey was given a mandate to negotiate an MCC tour with Lord Hawke instead. No agreement on an Australian tour was reached prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, and Australia did not visit South Africa again until 1921. In South Africa, anti-Australian feeling was not confined to the cricket field, nor was it simply an issue for the establishment. The South African War, post-war reconstruction and a worldwide economic slump had led to an influx of Australians to South Africa. And for every skilled migrant there seemed

South Africa in international cricket. They accepted an offer from South African financier Abe Bailey to tour South Africa on the way home from England in 1902. Skilful negotiations meant they were provided with a guarantee of £2 000 for six matches, all to be played in the major centres, and in addition were promised half the profits.11 The tour was a resounding cricketing success. South Africa lost the series 2-0, but their first series against a full-strength side from either Australia or England demonstrated considerable promise. The Australians meanwhile were delighted. For little over a month's work they had earned profits of around £200 per man. Despite this success, administrators in South Africa shared the English establishment's view of the Australians. Australia, through its manager Major Ben Wardill, the secretary of Melbourne Cricket Club, had offered another Australian visit to South Africa following the end of their 1905 tour to England, but this was refused by the South African Cricket Association (SACA), where Western Province and Transvaal for once buried their usual differences and resisted the initiative. Australia was, they felt, simply interested in the money. England, SACA considered, would bring real amateurs (not 'paid' amateurs) as well as professionals. Australia preached the game of paid amateurs and the less heard of them the better for South Africa. 12 Cricket in South Africa now found itself moving emphatically to the centre. In the first place, the South African War had changed its status on the Witwatersrand - alongside the fact that it brought with it an 'army' of English amateurs, cricket had now became the sport of the ruling class, as opposed to simply that of the interloper. Second, the war was the final phase in the alliance of local and international capital that had won control of the mining industry and was about to re-build the country in accordance with these interests: meaning, in the short term, reconstruction, and in the longer term, union under the empire. The reconstruction of South African cricket, part of the general reconstruction of civil society in accordance with the empire's image, demonstrated this, as English amateurs such as Reginald Schwarz and Frank Mitchell were drawn