Empire Cricket Booklet

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GEOFFREY LEVETT

was designed in such a fashion as to emphasise the extent of the British empire and its historical significance. On the front elevation were four life size statues of the emperors Charlemagne and Julius Caesar, and Edward VII and his consort, Queen Alexandra. 33 Further, the hotel was decorated with two hemispheres of the globe, executed in mosaic, showing 'British Territory', including the newly con quered Transvaal and the Orange Free State. 34 Thus we can see that in the manner of their arrival in London, and through the discourse that surrounded players in the media, the emphasis was always on the way in which the players were representatives of the empire, assuring the public of South Africa's loyalty and home within the empire. This is especially apparent in the publicity given to the tour's only Af rikaner participant, J. J. Kotze from the Cape Colony. Before the South African War, several Afrikaners, such as J. F. du Toit and C. G. Fichardt, had represented South Africa in first-class cricket against touring teams from Australia and England, but after the war there grew an antipathy among imperialists towards the idea that Boers were capable of playing the English game. 3 5 John Buchan took the view that it 'is worth considering the Boer at sport ... for there he is at his worst', and that the Boers 'were not a sporting race'. 36 The Afrikaner's inability to play cricket was further outlined by Abe Bailey in his section on South Africa in Imperial Cricket, a huge tome assembled by the cricketer and journalist Pelham Warner to celebrate the spread of the game to the farthest comers of the globe on the occasion of the Triangular Tournament between South Africa, England and Australia in England in 1912. 37 Bailey opened by saying that he 'should perhaps briefly mention that the South African national game is (rugby) football, in that it finds among its devotees the best of the youth of both races. Few Boers take to cricket, whilst they simply love football.' 38 This emphasis on the Afrikaner inability to 'take' to cricket of course has no basis in fact, as has already been noted. 39 Bailey went on to say that '[w]hat is required (in cricket) is the display of all the patriotism that we can command; I mean South African patriotism, the desire to uphold the honour and reputation of South Africa at all times', hence tying South African patriotism to the English game.

The patriotic credentials of Kotze could be in no doubt, since he had acted as a guide for the British during the war, and even had the rare honour of reading his own obituary 'when a Boer named Coetze was named amongst the killed' during a raid. 40 When reference was made to Kotze's background, it was always emphasised that he came 'from a family that was loyal throughout the war'. 41 There was another way in which Kotze was made to appear more 'British' than was necessarily the case. Going back to cricket's roots in rural village life, there had always been the stereotype of the rustic cricket player mixing with the local gentry on the team where 'squire, farmer, blacksmith and labourer ... were at ease together and happy all the summer aftemoon'. 42 Thus when described, Kotze was always picked out as a farmer, with his way of taking life 'calmly and deliberately', despite his reputation as a 'demon fast bowler', thus making him conform to a stereotype the British were comfortable with. 43 The idea of imperial character was firmly tied to a racial notion of British superiority (as exemplified by the description of Sherwell) in which the British had 'an aggressive sense of cultural superiority as the representatives of a global civilization then at the height of its prestige'. 44 The way that Kotze was treated in the press was a means of assimilating him into a British team. Remarks were made upon several of the other play ers' records in the war too. For example Sewell, in his profile of Jimmy Sinclair, linked his ability at cricket with his war service, describing: 'As of yore he hits the ball when he hits it, and was probably sorry, at the time, he did not go through with his stroke when, on a certain occasion, he was at the business end of a Lee-Metford - in the days of close quarters it would have been said he had 'clubbed his musket' - and a certain will-'o-the-wisp Boer general was within biff.' 45 It was also rumoured that Sinclair was such a cricketing patriot that in order to make the South African tour to England in 1901 he had escaped from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp. 46 Emphasising the combative nature of the South African team was another way of building them up as imperial heroes and was a common way of describing their encounters in England. Typical was the Daily Mail's account of the skilful way in which