Empire Cricket Booklet

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THE ROLE OF THE PRESS

for a cricketer who would encourage the English to show interest in the proposed tour. Amidst this upsetting development, Cadwallader involved himself in the staging of a historic match between a Malay XVIII and the English tourists on 22-23 March 1892. He had for several seasons monitored the progress of black cricket and reported on tournaments in which they had played. The inter-racial fixture at Newlands was nevertheless a dramatic late insertion into the tour programme at a time when the liberal tradition at the Cape was declining. It clearly did not win the approval of all concerned, and Rowland Bowen states that in 'a colour prejudice too often found later on, the English amateurs refused to take part'. 86 The match proved a welcome boost for Malay cricket and they 'showed appreciation of the great honour accorded them by attending in large numbers'. Seeing the English struggle 'to cope with the pace of Hendricks created great excitement. They were also delighted by the achievement of Samsodien who recorded the highest innings (55) made by a South African player against the touring side in a programme of twenty-one matches.' Referring to themselves as the 'Mohammedan community', the Malays expressed their appreciation in the Cape Times and asked for'similar kindness' in the future. 87 It was a simple request but one that cricket administrators were disinclined to fulfil. The 1888/89 tour fostered widespread awareness of the game. Most cricket journalists had progressed beyond simply recounting data and were advancing a more informal, communicative style of writing that gave the sport a broader hearing. The images that they collectively projected in the course of the tour were those of a society clamouring to be associated with a game that featured prominently in imperial culture. Reports did not, however, skirt the divisions: Finlason, for instance, was sensitive to assumptions of superiority on the part of the touring side, whilst Jabavu drew attention to the racial exclusivity which marred the tour programme. It bode well that respected journalists were able to express strong Conclusion

The intrepid journalist was held up at the Mozambican village of M'pandas because of lack of transport, and he spent nearly two months in a tent erected haphazardly on the bank of a muddy stream. It was not a place where anyone wished to stay for long. Like the other Portuguese villages, it was dirty and unkempt, and rats were a virtually uncontrollable feature. To Cadwallader's great surprise, Bowden suddenly arrived, sweeping dramatically into the village at the head of a convoy of 70 naked carriers. The erstwhile cricketer had 'sad stories of the privation experienced' and hoped to travel to Durban before the next rainy season. Cadwallader was encouraged by this good news, but was then himself subjected to a longer stay than planned after becoming 'thoroughly ill with fever near Mandigo' and reaching Umtali in a state of 'exhaustion and helplessness'. 84 On his eventual return to South Africa, he discovered that arrangements had indeed been made for an English cricket tour during 1891/92. Edwin Ash, the manager of the British rugby side, had - admittedly, grudgingly - been given the green light to organise a cricket venture on condition that he raised a first-class combination. He was able to do so, assembling a powerful side led by England batsman Walter Read. Unfortunately, as many feared, the tour turned out to be a financial failure, culminating in writs of arrest being issued against Read and Ash for the recovery of £1 000 that had been advanced to assist the team to complete their matches. In early March 1892, news was received that Bowden had died following a cricket match. Cadwallader was stunned by the news and reacted by casting doubts as to its veracity. He thought that the reports should be treated with 'a great amount of reserve' and forwarded his sentiments to the editor of Cricket, Charles Alcock, who was liaising with Cadwallader on the possibility of a South African tour of England. 85 Cadwallader's jud gm ent might have been influenced by the fact that Bowden's death had been incorrectly announced in the previous year; there again, perhaps too much rested on the player's return to South African cricket. The loss of Bowden was significant, in that it forced Cadwallader to renew his search