Empire Cricket Booklet

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RICHARD PARRY

He also presented a Cup known as the Currie Cup to the Cape Town Highlanders for a shooting tournament and this may have been the origin of the idea for the Currie Cup to be presented to the team which performed best against the visitors. 5 4 In announcing the presentation of the Currie Cup, before the departure of Warton's team, Currie extolled the mystique of the African continent and cautioned the cricketers as to the athletic prowess of the African population. 55 African and coloured representatives greeted the tourists on their arrival in December 1888 and Aubrey Smith was struck by their enthusiasm for the game. He spoke in Port Elizabeth of the ubiquity of Africans and coloureds playing on any available patch of land and of the role played by cricket in 'binding men together'. 5 6 But enthusiasm for cricket sometimes brought down the wrath of the colonial regime. An eleven-year-old coloured domestic worker in Port Elizabeth, Courie Abaan, was caned and sent to a reformatory for stealing £5 from his employer which he spent mainly on 'cricket bats and wickets'. 57 Despite the expectations of the team and Smith's statement of support for the development of black cricket, with the implication that cricket would bring the various population groups together, no arrangements had been made for the team to play against a team of African and/or coloured cricketers. There is no indication that this was considered, despite support in the previous year for a tour of African cricketers to the Britain, similar to the Australian Aborigine or Parsee tours. There was also apparently no discussion of the possibility of selecting African or coloured cricketers in any of the regional teams to face the tourists, despite the claims of the likes of Nathaniel Umhalla in King William's Town or 'Krom' Hendricks in Cape Town. William Milton, the mastermind behind the tour, was not likely to have been in favour of this possibility. Milton's political and sporting influence is described in more detail in the section below, but there is no indication that, as the most significant establishment grandee in the Cape Town cricketing firmament, he had any sympathy with or saw the benefit of interaction between the tourists and black players.

'leader' or'secretary' of the Cape Muslim community but an unsung hero of community-building efforts at the Cape in the 1890s. Burns sought to raise the profile of the Muslim community first by stressing their loyalty on all state occasions by sending official congratulations or letters of condolences on behalf of the Muslim community and also by promoting the Cape Town Union Cricket Club and organising inter-town cricket tournaments. 49 Not only was there a strong network of coloured clubs in Cape Town by the late 1880s, cricketing connections brought together 'non-European' players from the hinterland and the metropolis itself. New Year and Easter tours to and from the country regions beyond the Cape peninsula were well established by the late 1880s. In 1887, for example, New Year fixtures included a visit by Cape Town's Assyrians to Paarl, about 30 miles outside the city. They played Western Star and lost to Paarl Fair Players by 61 runs and on their return to Cape Town were beaten by Africans CC at the Early Morning Market. 50 More significantly, Red Crescent, the most powerful coloured team in Kimberley, visited Cape Town in 1887, playing Alberts CC among others (following in the footsteps of the white team, the 'Stray Klips' who also successfully toured the Cape in the same year). In 1888, Cape Town's Star of South Africa went on tour to Swellendam, winning games against the local Guardians and Excelsiors. In the first game, H. Hendricks carried his bat for 38 not out in a total of 65 and in the second game he took 6/7 in four overs. 51 Easter also brought a tour by Centrals CC of Stellenbosch, who played Alberts at Green Point Common. 52 Coloured and African enthusiasm for cricket was noted by Sir Donald Currie, who was a key supporter of the first English team to visit the Cape in 1888/89 under Major Warton, and captained by C. Aubrey Smith. Currie was looking to enhance the prospects of his Castle Line, which were the primary link between the Britain and the Cape, but he was also a philanthropist sympathetic to some of the aspirations of the African population. Early in 1888, Currie had undertaken a visit to South Africa, including Knysna, and donated £50 to be shared among the mission churches as well as £10 to the local public library. 53