Empire Cricket Booklet

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THE ROLE OF THE PRESS

not only amongst the white population, but even amongst the black [people] ... wherever you go in the colonies you will find that it is cricket which binds men together in the cause of sport and I hope it will always be so.' 60 Newspapers frequently referred to black interest in the game and recognised their desire to take up British games as part of a process of cultural transformation. Smith noticed 'while driving through the suburbs of Cape Town that every spare patch of ground was used by blacks to pitch wickets - or paraffin cans in some cases - in order to play cricket'. 61 Warton recalled seeing 'as quaint a sight as ever cricketers saw at Mowbray. Two or three cricket matches were being played by Malays and Kafirs, and hundreds of Malay women in the many coloured costumes were there to do honour to their

the importance of the game to the African people: Jabavu promised '... the natives do not only mean to persevere in playing at cricket, but are resolved to proceed from conquering to conquest so far as the cricket world is concerned'. 57 Odendaal notes that a number of matches were played between African and white teams in the years prior to the arrival of Warton's team.Jabavu believed that cricket matches were calculated to make the two races 'have more mutual trust and confidence than all the coercive and repressive legislation in the world'. His newspaper added that a victory by the Port Elizabeth Africans over Cradock early in 1885 had proved that the 'native' should 'not be dismissed

John Tengo Jabavu, founder-editor of lmvo Zobantsundu, promoted cricket through his newspaper and was an opponent of the racially structured English tour of 1888/89. He is pictured with his son Davidson.

friends.' 62 At the same time, inter-racial activity was not encouraged; a Potchefstroom Budget reporter was shocked to see two English cricketers sitting with black companions 'in sight of some thousands of spectators' at Newlands. He proffered the view that 'the professionals in question were quite unconscious of any impropriety'. 63 The rejection suffered by black players was for a while offset by unnamed 'gentlemen from England'

as a mere "schepsel", as it has been the habit of the pioneers to do so hereto'. 58 The English had been told prior to leaving that cricket had taken 'deep root among the black people of South Africa'. 59 Aubrey Smith later spoke of the need to encourage all races to play cricket in South Africa. 'Our visit, which, from all that I can see,' he told a gathering in Port Elizabeth, 'is calculated to have so great an effect on the cricket of the Cape,