Empire Cricket Booklet

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JONTYWINCH

between towns, lack of time and finance to organise the Port Elizabeth tournament, and the absence of elected bodies and experienced staff to handle the administrative requirements. The last of the English businessmen - whose motives were never fully explained - left the country in January 1889 and the proposed tour was subsequently forgotten. Jabavu turned his attention to Major Warton's cricketers at a time when their performances had improved and they were trouncing weak sides that could have been strengthened by black players. Jabavu was naturally most interested when the tourists visited King William's Town, an area where cricket played an important role within urban black popular culture. Two matches were staged against the white Cape Mounted Rifles. Their commanding officer, Colonel Zachary Bayly, organised the required guarantee and, conscious that everyone should see the cricket, arranged for the ground to be 'fenced but not screened'. As a consequence, Imvo Zabantsundu could state that there were people 'of all classes' supporting the game with a number of black spectators amongst the crowd of 2 000. The newspaper recorded that 'the sympathies of the native spectators were with the English', thereby heralding the beginning of a long tradition of black support for visiting sides. 69 As the fortunes of the English team changed in the latter part of the tour, Jabavu seized his opportunity to write critically of South Africa's cricket structure. He scorned the white press for their belief that the supposedly 'representative' team which played the English 'would do wonders'. He described the one-sided Cape Town 'Test' - lost by an innings and 202 runs - as 'the uplifting of the curtain over the ridiculous mouse, the South African team'. 70 The margin of victory was unexpected in light of previous performances but the disparity between the two sides placed huge doubts on South Africa's ability to stand alongside England and Australia as a cricket-playing nation. It was a match in which Johnny Briggs teased and tormented the mesmerised South Africans who were led by Milton. In the course of the home side's capitulation, Briggs claimed fifteen wickets for 28 runs - the most wickets in one day (less than two

who planned to take them on a tour to that country, leaving in April 1889. These entrepreneurs teamed up with Jabavu and launched their scheme through his newspaper. The offer, open to 'all the Native races from which it is hoped to pick the very best men', received widespread support. Imvo Zabantsundu commented: 'We trust the various Kafir clubs will loose [sic] no time in arranging for an undertaking that is fraught with momentous issues for the Native races in the country.' 64 Jabavu believed the undertaking would 'afford our friends there the opportunity of realising the tone that European civilisation gives to the society of Africans'. 65 The intention was to arrange the exercise along similar lines to that made by the Aborigine cricketers in 1868 with the selection criteria calling for the players to be of 'good character, total abstainers and generally intelligent ... smart and athletic [and of] good figure with no deformity'. The demands concluded with the note that all candidates would have 'to pass a committee of experts'. 66 Imvo Zabantsundu provided a forum to discuss the tour and letters commented enthusiastically on the chances of the black South African players. One correspondent compared their standards with that of the Parsees who had twice toured England: the Parsees won just one out of 28 matches in 1886 but, two years later, obtained eight victories in 31 matches. 67 The writer dismissed the Asian endeavour as an 'elaborate failure', claiming, 'I have no doubt the Natives of this country with proper coaching would thoroughly efface the best records of our friends in India'. 68 Local players were adamant that some form of trial was a prerequisite to the selection of a touring team. Plans were discussed and a tournament was scheduled for Port Elizabeth from which the side would be selected. It was thought that Umhalla and Umvalo of King William's Town and Ross, Perisa, Swartboy, Foley and Makwena from Port Elizabeth would form the nucleus of a promising tour party. Despite the interest that prevailed in support of the project, it was an impossible assignment. The many practical problems included an inability to arrange practices because of the vast distances