Empire Cricket Booklet

MORE THAN A GAME

the world's first race, and the more of the world they inhabited the better it would be for humanity; this absorption would also ensure the end of all wars'. 14 The period created a rich legacy of South African cricket achievements and stories. This is not surprising because the game was a social meeting point that attracted people from the outlying areas, who would relish the opportunity to meet friends, drink and gamble. The 1890/91 Currie Cup challenge between Kimberley and the Transvaal, for example, was played over a record seven days, long enough for a considerable amount of money to be won and lost. The diamond magnate, Barney Barnato - 'who had an idea that the [cricket] scoring was different to that in a billiards match but he didn't know how' - was nevertheless reported to have won £2 000. 15

South Africa, and the legendary Brigadier-General Poore who was invited to play for the English and South African teams during the 1895/96 tour. It was 'another imperial duty', said Derek Birley in a reference to Lord Hawke who led a team in 1895/96 that included ten amateur 'gentlemen' out of fourteen players and 'with just one exception, the "gentlemen" were all Oxford or Cambridge Blues'. 12 Iain Wilton in his biography of C. B. Fry does note that they were not a particularly popular team owing to their unsportsmanlike behaviour, lack of concern for locals, complaints about pitches, unpleasant sledging and the occasional clamouring for money.13 They did, nevertheless, add much to the cricket scene with a colourful splash of blazers, belts and hat ribbons, whilst locals were able to marvel at the

Lord Hawke's 1898/99 English side in action at Matjiesfontein, 17 March 1899

The English tours generated interest amongst the leaders of towns and territories who realised that 'British sports served overwhelmingly to express and enhance the solidarity of colonial society'. 16 Sport could be a means of forging a South African identity in a land that was otherwise sh arp ly divided. Milton loomed large over South African cricket and his career spans several chapters in this book, with his emerging influence being largely instrumental in the politicisation of sport at the Cape and ultimately

talents of personalities such as C. B. Fry, Lohmann, Tom Hayward, Timothy O'Brien and Sammy Woods. The splendour of Matjiesfontein made a wonderful setting for such a touring side, courtesy of its owner and cricket benefactor, James Logan. David Frith wrote of the 'seductive charm' of the late Victorian and Edwardian period, 'a time of complacency, security and opulent pride for Britain and her splendid Empire . . . many shared the conviction of Cecil Rhodes that the British were