Empire Cricket Booklet

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THE GOOGLY, GOLD AND THE EMPIRE

cricket team against Corner House, the other major Witwatersrand mining bloc, and made a half-century at the Wanderers. 16 But it was notjust cricketthatLord Harris was concerned about. He was particularly interested in the Chinese labour issue and told the Rand Daily Mail that 'the present depression in the money markets is due to the lack of gold'. 17 This was far from a parochial issue. Following the South African War, the goal of imperial policy during the reconstruction period was to create a state that would meet the demands of a mining industry critical to the empire. Britain's position as a financial centre depended on the use of sterling as an international trading currency backed by gold. Germany's economic and monetary reform, based on reparations from the Franco-Prussian War, set off a scramble to raise the pace of industrialisation. By the mid 1890s, practically every economy of note had joined Britain on the gold standard. These two factors, and the eclipse of bimetallism, greatly inflated the demand for gold. In Britain, particularly in the wake of the Barings Bank crash, there was concern about the narrow basis for Britain's gold reserves. The aim of imperial policy thereafter was to boost reserves, or at least to control the flow of new gold in order to maximise the Bank of England's room for manoeuvre and deny as much to competing economies, chiefly Germany and the United States of America. 18 Since the British economy had failed to see off the competition of these new industrial giants during the complacent years since 1870, the resultant economic slack had been taken up by the services sector, and Britain could therefore brook no serious challenge to her pre-eminence as a financial centre: capital was now one of her key exports. 19 Moreover since all imports - including arms - needed to be paid for via bullion shipments, the requirement for adequate gold reserves was more important than ever during periods of heightened tension, precisely those times when the purchase of new gold was most difficult. The inevitable losers were those on whom the industry depended for its labour. 20 The post-war period witnessed a long-term depression. Between 1902 and 1907, the market value of the shares of the 42 gold-producing and dividend-paying companies on the Rand fell by over 50 per cent. 21

to be another with an eye on the main chance. White South Africans struggling through the depression were not impressed by competition from this source. By 1904, the Rand Daily Mail carried reports of public meetings in Johannesburg callingfor 'discrimination' against Australians, and for barring Australians from South Africa altogether, leading the Mail to observe that 'South Africans have made the mistake of judging Australians generally by the standard of a few of them', but adding 'there can be no doubt that some rare blackguards have during the last four years left Australia for South Africa'. 13 But it was also clear that the close connections be tween South African cricket, the mining industry and Lord Harris himself, who was simultaneously both treasurer of the MCC and chairman of Consolidated Goldfields, 14 were creating a rapprochement which was to have a significant effect on the role of South Africa in world cricket. The 1903/04 tour to Australia was the first for which the MCC was directly responsible and was again captained by Warner. The team was not at full strength. Archie MacLaren, Gilbert Jessop and C. B. Fry, among other amateurs, refused to tour. With the strong support of Fry and Warner, Bosanquet was chosen following a 'should he, shouldn't he' debate in the press about his involvement, without giving away his real role, since secrecy was essential. As it turned out Bosanquet's googly was to have the crucial say in the result. Foster and Rhodes had played key roles in winning the first two Tests for England and the third had gone to Australia. In the Fourth Test, Australia needed 329 runs to win in the final innings but was shot out for 171. Bosanquet, with a spell of 5/12 amid total figures of 6/51, had ensured that England regained the Ashes. Still bound to suppress the full story, the English cricket press could scarcely contain itself. The gamble had worked. Against Bosanquet, only Joe Darling and Syd Gregory had any clue at all; according to Fry it was like 'a game of diddling'. 15 The googly had hit its target - the Australians. At the time that Bosanquet was winning the Ashes for England, Lord Harris was back in South Africa. He appeared for the Consolidated Goldfields