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Abstract
This essay was written to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909. Australia and England were the two leading international sides and would be joined by South Africa to form a body that would play a role in overseeing the sport's future development. The coming together of national boards into an international organisation came at the instigation of South Africa and this essay considers the economic and political reasons behind their resolve to form such a body and then to consummate it in 1912 with a triangular tournament in England. Australian resistance to such a competition was considered secondary to the political and economic benefits of having South African treated as an equal within the Empire. Finally, the essay considers the merits of South African membership in cricketing terms compared to other notable countries.
Notes
1 Wisden Cricketers Almanac 2009, 86.
2 Space did not allow comparisons to include New Zealand, although the objectives of the piece were to contrast attitudes towards the ‘white’ (South Africa) and the ‘black’ (India and the West Indies) Empire and the question of support beyond the Empire (USA).
3 CitationManley, A History of West Indies Cricket, 19.
4 Kilburn and Coward, ‘Australia’, 61–2.
5 CitationPollard, The Formative Years of Australian Cricket.10
6 CitationStoddart and Sandiford, The Imperial Game, 34.
7 CitationChristen, Some Grounds to Appeal. 59
8 CitationLouis and Porter, The Oxford History of the British Empire, 559. Australians fought in campaigns in New Zealand, Sudan and South Africa before the First World War.
9 CitationCashman et al., The Oxford Companion to Austrlian Cricket, 536–7.
10 CitationMitchell, ‘Baseball in Australia’, 2–24.
11 Stoddart and Sandiford, The Imperial Game, 40.
12 CitationReiss, City Games, 33.
13 CitationAltham and Swanton, A History of Cricket, 142.
14 CitationColdham, Lord Hawke, 145.
15 President of Montserrat in the West Indies in 1854 and lieutenant governor of St. Kitts in 1855; administered Hong Kong between 1859 and 1865, and was appointed governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1872 he was made governor of New South Wales; governor of New Zealand (1879–1880); and finally of the Cape Colony and high commissioner in South Africa.
16 Quoted in CitationHyam, Britain's Imperial Century, 295.
17 CitationMurray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 38.
18 Part of the problem with these figures is that they include matches against under-strength English sides.
19 CitationLuckin, A History of South African Cricket.
20 CitationLuckin, A History of South African Cricket, 67.
21 Duffus, Owen-Smith, and Odendaal, ‘South Africa’, 114.
22 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 6.
23 See CitationFrindall, The Wisden Book of Test Cricket.
24 ‘The South Africans in Australia, 1910–11’, Wisden 1912. http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/150202.html
25 ‘The Proposed Triangular Cricket Contests’, The Times, January 24, 1908. Selbourne later became president and treasurer of MCC.
26 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 272.
27 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 224.
28 By contrast, the 1911–1912 English tourists were watched by 342,275 spectators who paid £16,297 for the privilege. Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, 253.
29 CitationWarner, Imperial Cricket, 323–4.
30 CitationBowen, Cricket: A History, 150. Bailey was a known admirer of Cecil Rhodes, even taking his seat on his death, who was also described by a British editor as first of dynasty of ‘money kings’ who had emerged as ‘the real rulers of the world’. (Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War. 9) A major anxiety for Britain in the years leading up to the First World War was a shortage of gold reserves, making all relations with South Africa of crucial importance: see CitationAlly, Gold and Empire, 18–20.
31 CitationHarte, A History of Australian Cricket, 255.
32 CitationCaple, The Springboks at Cricket, 74; ‘Notes from the Editor’. Wisden, 1913. http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/150208.html; CitationHaigh, Silent Revolutions, 180.
33 Roberts and Rutnagur, ‘India’, 87.
34 CitationBose, History of Indian Cricket, 18.
35 CitationBose, History of Indian Cricket, 19
36 CitationBurton, Afro-Creole, 30.
37 CitationBeckles, The Development of West Indies Cricket, 5.
38 CitationBeckles, The Development of West Indies Cricket, 3.
39 CitationHamilton, Cricket in Barbados, 7.
40 Howat, ‘History of Cricket in the United States of America’, 26.
41 Howat, ‘History of Cricket in the United States of America’ 28
42 CitationKirsch, Baseball and Cricket, 42
43 And pre-empting football's England vs. Scotland by 26 years as the first sporting international.
44 Coldham, Lord Hawke, 85.
45 CitationMelville, The Tented Field, 119.
46 CitationWyatt, The Tour of the West Indian Cricketers, 7
47 CitationBeckles and Stoddart, Liberation Cricket, 197
48 CitationMurray and Merrett, Caught Behind, 8.
49 CitationMeredith, Diamonds, Gold and War, 8.
50 CitationMeredith, Diamonds, Gold and War, 261.
51 CitationMeredith, Diamonds, Gold and War, 411.
52 CitationEddy and Schrueder, The Rise of Colonial Nationalism, 211.
53 Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War, 482.
54 Daily Independent, 20 December 1888. Cited in Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 49.
55 CitationWarner, The M.C.C. in South Africa, 68; Altham and Swanton, A History of Cricket, 311.
56 CitationBuchan, The African Colony, 49–50.
57 Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War, 95–6.
58 The Times, 2 May 1907; Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 252.
59 Beckles, The Development of West Indies Cricket, 69.
60 CitationThomas, Rhodes, 8.
61 CitationJohnson, British Imperialism, 109.
62 CitationJohnson, British Imperialism, 93.
63 Beckles and Stoddart, Liberation Cricket, 114.
64 Beckles and Stoddart, Liberation Cricket, 25
65 CitationBrendon, Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 31.
66 CitationButler, Eldest Brother, 237.
67 Cited in Bose, History of Indian Cricket, 30.
68 CitationJames, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, 419.
69 CitationHyam and Martin, Reappraisals in British Imperial History, 115.
70 CitationHarlow, The Founding of the Second British Empire, 140.
71 Cited in Brendon, Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 244.
72 Cited in CitationSeecharan, Muscular Learning, 51.
73 CitationColeman, ‘The First West Indians’.
74 Quoted in CitationTatz, ‘Racism & Sport in Australia’, 46.
75 Haigh, Silent Revolutions, 179; CitationNeame, Some South African Politicians, 167.
76 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 81–100.
77 Murray and Merrett, Caught Behind, 7.
78 CitationBirley, Social History of English Cricket, 272.
79 CitationPaton, Hofmeyr. 159. Erie Louw was a neo-Nazi who later became Minister of External Affairs, 1955–63.
80 Luckin, A History of South African Cricket, 128.
81 CitationWells, South Africa, 131.
82 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 49.
83 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 111.
84 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket, 248.
85 Murray and Vahed, Empire and Cricket; Warner, Imperial Cricket, 312.
86 CitationHolt, Sport and the British, 227.
87 Coldham, Lord Hawke, 8–9.
88 Coldham describes the team touring India as the equal of any of the English second-class counties (p. 88). The first side to South Africa as ‘perhaps the strongest he had ever taken abroad’ (p. 114) whilst five of the side to the Caribbean were ‘club cricketers who would never aspire to play first-class cricket in London.’ (p. 127) The second team to South Africa was ‘not perhaps, the equal of his first.’ (p. 142) R. Knowles described them as ‘the equivalent of a good county side.’ CitationKnowles, South Africa verses England, 33.
89 Details taken from CitationWynne-Thomas, The Complete History of Cricket Tours.
90 CitationSandiford, Cricket Nurseries of Colonial Barbados, 18
91 Wisden Cricketers Almanac, Citation 2009 , 86