Empire Cricket Booklet

BERNARD HALL, RICHARD PARRY AND JONTY WINCH

the Transvaal be invited to take part in the Fourth Olympiad, as South Africa'. The motion was carried unanimously and an all-white squad was entered for the 1908 Olympic Games in London - nineteen-year old Reggie Walker winning the 100 metres.

Success on the cricket field against the English occurred during an eventful three years of South African sport. The great achievements of the 1906/07 rugby Springboks further created or fostered a sense of nationhood, with team captain, Paul Roos, believing 'the tour had united the South African nation'. It certainly inspired the 'white' unification movement in which Bailey was prominent. He was also instrumental in founding the South African Amateur Athletic Association and attended a conference of the International Olympic Committee in 1907, which had important implications for South African sport. 48 At that meeting, the British delegate moved a motion that 'the four British colonies, the Cape Province, Natal, the Orange River Colony and

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Union Celebrat:lor s [ 11n

by Cricket's Decline Burridge Spies stresses the urgency that prevailed for the amalgamation of the South African states. By 1908, war in Europe between the hostile power blocs was 'a distinct possibility'. South Africa was of vital importance to the empire as one of the 'five strategic keys that lock up the world'. The overriding desire

An African observer looks on between opposing captains, Percy Sherwell and Plum Warner - an unusual witness to South Africa's first-ever Test victory at Johannesburg in 1905/06. It was a match that had attracted the interest of Mohandas Gandhi and the Transvaal Indian Cricket Union, but they were unable to gain admission.