Empire Cricket Booklet
303
NOTES
during the 1970s and especially the 1980s was the international sports boycott. That Afrikaans speaking cricketers such as Kepler Wessels, Alan Donald, Corrie van Zyl and Fanie de Villiers did play 'internationals' during the era of isolation against 'rebel' teams from England, Sri Lanka, West India and Australia attests to this.
to the best of our knowledge, the first of the Boer prisoners of war in Ceylon to have played cricket against a local (coloured) team. Titis match took place in March 1901, when they played against the Galle Cricket Club. The match at Galle took place four months before the one between the Boers and the Colombo Colts. However, the match in March 1901 was a 'one-day single innings match' only: see Perera, Sri Lankan Cricket, 83. 97 Odendaal, The Story of an African game, 34: it is related that 'an early colonist gave details in his journal of a meeting in 1862 with a dishevelled farmer at an outpost, three days "ride from the nearest town", who had been "amusing himself by playing cricket with Kaffirs"'. 98 For an interesting look at the role of ethnicity in Sri Lanka, and especially against the backdrop of cricket, anthropology and history and the challenges facing historians in explaining history, see M. Roberts, 'Ethnicity in Riposte at a Cricket Match: The Past for the Present', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 27, 3 (1985), 401-29. 99 R. Archer and A. Bouillon, The South African Game: Sport and Racism (London: Zed Press, 1982), 86 and the sources cited there. 100 Ibid. 101 Ibid., 87. 102 A. Grundlingh, A. Odendaal and S. B. Spies, Beyond the Tryline: Rugby and South African Society (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1995), 112-113. 103 Ibid., 114. 104 A. Odendaal, 'Turning History on its Head', in C. Day (ed.), 'Cricket ... Developing Winners: A 10th Birthday Celebration of the United Cricket Board of South Africa's "Development for All in the Gamefor All"' (Illovo: United Cricket Board of South Africa, 2001), 29 and 31. Odendaal's assertion that'Afrikaners only got the first significant opportunities to play in the international arena with the advent of democracy' is inaccurate. While it is true that many (white) Afrikaans-speaking cricketers have represented South Africa since the advent of democracy, this has little if anything to do with democracy per se. A simple head count in the 'Who's Who of South African First-Class Cricketers' section in any edition of the South African Cricket Annual during the late 1980s, that is during the last days of apartheid and thus before the democratic era, shows that there were at least 50 Afrikaans-speaking first-class cricketers. Many were good enough to represent South Africa. The reason that more Afrikaans speaking cricketers did not represent South Africa
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We are grateful to Bruce Murray for providing copies of the South African Cricket Association minutes. He also drew our attention to the role that Jimmy Sinclair played in the selection of 'Buck' Llewell yn for the 1910/11 tour to Australia. 1 R. Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development throughout the World (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1970), 150. 2 B. Dobbs, Edwardians at Play (London: Pelham, 1973), 141, for example, uses Bowen's statement as an 'example of colour prejudice', writing that Llewell yn 'was subjected to a number of unpleasant indignities at the hands of his fellow white tourists'. 3 See B. Murray, 'A New History of South African Cricket', Journal of Southern African Studies, 31, 4 (December 2005). 4 Spectator, 2 June 2007. 5 Guardian, 22 June 1993. 6 P. Wynne-Thomas, 'The Man who Remade History', Cricket Lore, 2, 5, pp. 17-19. 7 Cape Times, 15 January 1972. 8 A. Odendaal (ed.), Cricket in Isolation: The Politics of Race and Cricket in South Africa (Stellenbosch: the Author, 1977), 325. 9 Cricketer, February 1976, 21. 10 Ibid., March 1976, 29. 11 B Murray and C. Merrett, Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2004), 21. 12 C. Merrett, 'Sport and Race in Colonial Natal: C. B. Llewellyn, South Africa's First Black Test Cricketer', The Cricket Statistician, 128 (Nottingham: Winter 2004), 17. 13 J. M. Kilburn, Overthrows: A Book of Cricket (London: Stanley Paul, 1975), 9-13. 14 Ibid., 11.
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator