Book Of The Year Award > 2010 > Empire And Cricket
EMPIRE & CRICKET The South African Experience 1884-1914
Bruce Murray & Goolam Vahed (Ed)

Occasionally, just occasionally, there comes along a cricket book which is so hard to put down and to stop reading. You might think that this plaudit is only reserved for a book, produced by a well-known publishing house which is about, or written by, a Test player, with the resulting pages full of tales of derring-do and graphic accounts of how he almost single-handedly won a Test or series for his country. In the past few months, I have found it well nigh impossible to stop delving into "Empire and Cricket", a book produced by a group of academics and other writers from the U.K., South Africa and Australia, and published by the University of South Africa, recounting an enthralling tale of sport, race and politics. .

"Empire and Cricket" is a true delight: a real masterpiece of informed opinion and historical narrative, deftly combining the outcomes from intense academic research and theorising with a lighter touch allowing the reader to avoid becoming bogged down in a wealth of detail, political dogma or irrelevant facts. Indeed, this is no mean feat when considering that the book explores how cricket in South Africa between 1884 and 1914 acted as a vehicle for Empire and all at a time when the colonies which subsequently became South Africa were still hotly contested spaces from both a political and cultural point of view. Indeed, cricket lay at the heart of the country's social and political evolution, and the fourteen chapters – ably supported by several photographs of historic importance – methodically explore the complex inter-relationships between cricket, politics and race during the late Victorian and Edwardian era. Amongst the essays is a detailed review by Jonty Winch showing how public opinion was shaped and reinforced by the Press in the years leading up to the formation in 1890 of the all-white South African Cricket Association. Geoffrey Levett also provides an interesting reminder of how imperial identity was reinforced by the 1907 South African tour to England – a tour that was part of a programme to make South Africa 'British' – and undertaken during a period which saw South Africa fast-tracked to Test match status, alongside England and Australia, and a founder member of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909.

Equally fascinating is the chapter by Jonty Winch on how the Cape Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes utilised cricket as part of a drive towards segregation, successfully blocking the inclusion of 'Krom' Hendricks, the coloured fast bowler in the South African teams of 1894 and 1895. Keith Booth also contributes a section on George Lohmann, drawing from his previously-published work on the "pioneer professional" which won the Cricket Society's Book of the Year in 2007, recounting the life and times of a man who still has, over a hundred years since he last played, a better average and strike-rate than any other bowler in the history of Test cricket, and from a wider perspective was steadfastly unwavering in his belief that on the cricket field, South Africa should be represented by the strongest possible team, irrespective of race or colour.

Fittingly in the year when the ICC celebrated its centenary, the book also contains a detailed chapter by Prof. Bruce Murray on Abe Bailey – the man who was the driving force behind South African cricket in the years leading up to the Great War. As befitted an ardent imperialist, Bailey was eager to integrate South Africa with the rest of the Empire, and it was at his instigation that the Imperial Cricket Conference was created in 1909. Murray's illuminating comments also show how Bailey took great pains to assert the British and imperial identities in South Africa.

After reading this superb collection of essays, you will be left with a much clearer knowledge and understanding of the interwoven role of race, class and politics in the formative years of cricket in South Africa. You will also realise that anyone who suggests that "sport and politics" don't mix is simply wrong.

review by Andrew Hignell

Publisher
Unisa Press,
University of South Africa,
P O Box 392 0003UNISA
£30